The ROAMing Guardians
by AuraGuardianRyan
Summary: Not all heroes can have the cleanest past. That's especially true for the boys of Team ROAM. Read as their secretes come to light not only to those they care about but to themselves as well. Reboot to my original story 'The Aura Huntsman'. OC Team X Team RWBY.
1. His tales end

**Seeing as how the people that voted on the poll wants me to keep this story a crossover I'll oblige but ideas for the story have change so I'm rewriting something in the story (again). Anyways I hope your enjoy this newly revised story.**

{ } - Lucario speech

[ ] - Gallade speech

| |- Thoughts

 **[I own nothing in this story except my O.C.]**

* * *

The bright amber sunlight shone onto the face of a lightly tanned teenager whose head lay on a small rock. The teen, who was seventeen years old, had his face adorned with a scar going from under his left nostril to the center of his chin, leaving a gap of smooth skin in the thin stubbly beard that grew in his face. His wavy charcoal black, shoulder length hair lay freely over the right side of his face. As the light intensified, a low groan began to emanate from the teen's throat as he opened his steel grey eyes before rising and started to stretch.

{ _Are ready, Master Ryan?_ } Asked a voice for behind him.

As he turned to look behind him, the now named Ryan, saw a blue jackal humanoid hybrid standing before him. The creature stood at a height of 3'11" with its fur consisting of blue and black with a cream colored torso. There was a spikes protruding from both of the jackal's paws as well as the center of its chest. The creature's head has four appendages on the back of it dropping down like dreadlocks. Standing up straight its red eyes seemed to be focused on Ryan.

Signing, Ryan looked up at the creature before him and said,

"Yeah Lucario, just let me get changed. Can you get the others ready, in the meantime?"

 _{Of course Master.}_ Lucario said as he walked back to where he came from.

After a quick stretch, Ryan head towards his brown courier bag he had laid near the foot of his 'bed' and started to change for the task at hand. Out of the satchel he pulled out a thick, black zip-up leather jacket, a black V-neck t-shirt and a pair of black pants. The leather jacket had a dark blue colored hood and a dirty-gold coloring on the zipper. The hood was oversized causing it to cast a shadow over his eyes whenever he put it on making him seem slightly ominous. The shirt had a dark blue circle on the bottom right edge. Inside the circle was the design of a black gem that was looked to be emitting light. His pants were damaged and had slash marks going from his thighs to his knees and kept sealed by strands of fabric along the slashes. His feet bore a pair of black sneakers with a dark blue ball on each of them.

 _{Master, the Galactic's are preparing the red chain for Palkia and Dialga.}_ Lucario said as Ryan walked over to his group

"Then let's hurry and give my cousin and his friends the time that they need to get here."

 _[You think that Ash and his friends will make it here on time?]_ Asked a green figure with worry.

The figure a 5'03" white, bipedal Pokémon. Its lower body consisted of round hips with strong looking legs. It had a thin green torso with sharp, red horns sticking out of its chest and back. Its arms were shaped like tonfas with extendable blades on its elbows, making him a perfect sparring partner for Ryan.

Ash Ketchum was Ryan's cousin and the closest thing to a little brother that he had. From the day he was born, Ryan was sent to live with his Aunt Delia and Uncle Red. After four year of living with them his ' _younger brother'_ was born. But just as his family got bigger it also got smaller. After a week of Ash's birth, his Uncle Red went to the Kalos Region for Professor Oak, but he never came back. The last person to talk to him was Professor Sycamore, who said Red told him he ran across something strange and was going to check it out before he disappeared.

Currently Ash was traveling with his longtime friend, Brock Harrison, the ex-gym leader of the Pewter City gym in the Kanto region, and Dawn Berlitz, an up and coming coordinator from the Sinnoh region. Growing up, Brock had wants to become a pokemon breeder, but had to take care of his siblings and the Gym after his father left for his own journey. After being defeated by Ash, Brock's father returned allowing him to go out on his journey with Ash and has be with him through three region since Ash started his journey. Dawn has wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps become a top coordinator ever since she could remember, because of this the moment she turned ten she set off on her pokemon journey and meet Ash along the way.

"Yeah, they'll make it but we need to buy them some time, Gallade." Ryan answered the now know named Gallade.

 _{You shouldn't have let him talk you into letting him or his friends get involved this is they are still young and this is dangerous even for an Aura Guardian such as yourself.}_ Lucario says annoyance riddling his voice.

Despite being only seventeen years old, Ryan was already one of the youngest Aura Guardians to serve Lady Ilene. His training started at his Uncle Red's memorial service he finally met his father, an Aura Guardian by the name of Riley Ketchum. When he finally his father he was angry at first but eventually heard him out about his reasoning for leaving him with his Aunt and now late Uncle. As he heard about his father's occupation, Ryan asked his father to make him an Aura Guardian. Much to his displeasure his Aunt immediately told his father that he was not going to take a four year old to become a protector.

Though he tried to argue, Ryan eventually gave in and agreed to wait till he was ten to become an Aura Guardian. Despite the unmoving wall that was Delia Ketchum, his father still left him a book on Aura control.

After spending six years, not only studying his Aura book but helping his Aunt Delia raise Ash, Ryan went to Professor Oak's Lab and was greeted by his father, who took him to Cameron Castle and gave him a Riolu egg. And so he spent four more years not only homing his aura abilities and learn how to wield any weapon but also being given lessons on proper educate with which to act in the presence of the Regional royalty, by his maternal aunt and Queen of Rota, Lady Ilene.

Since then, he has help in stopping of Team Rocket's advances in Kanto, alongside Ash and Brock, despite his own complaints to his cousin to try his best to stay out of Team Rocket's way. After Ash left to the other regions, Ryan started to train ever harder to get stronger to keep another incident like Mewtwo's attack from repeating itself. After training with his dad for four years, Ryan was finally made an Aura Guardian. Over his years serving at Cameron Castle, he had caught himself other partners, Gallade and Honedge. While Ryan was technically the Queen's bodyguard, he would often be requested to leave the kingdom to keep the peace of the pokemon world as the Guardians of old did. Much to his displeasure, these off kingdom visits would often end in Ash and his traveling group being at the epicenter of the occurrence.

Much like his current assignment, from the Sinnoh Pokemon League. This assignment involved him following and stopping the region's major criminal organization, Team Galactic. While every region had its own criminal organization hell bent on achieving their leader's personal agenda, Team Galactic's goal was more sinister in nature. Their leader, Cyrus was a dead serious leader whose end goal was to create a 'perfect' universe where all emotion is gone preventing it from 'corrupting' the universe.

"Lucario, the Lake Trio already shown themselves to him and his friends. So as much as I hate it, he's already involved." Ryan responds, despite slightly agreeing with his starter pokemon.

 _{I know that you fear for his wellbeing Master. Let us hurry and stop Cyrus before they can get hurt.}_ Lucario responded, solemnly

"Agreed. Honedge come on." Ryan states while flicking on his hood and turning to the final figure with Lucario and Gallade.

Honedge was a 2'07" Pokémon that resembled a sword from the medieval times. Honedge had two different appearance, while sheathed it resembled a dark brown sword sheath with curved lines across its surface. While in unsheathed its appearance looked like a silver sword, with a gem that looks like an eye engraved on its hilt. Attached to its pommel was a long, dark blue cloth with a swirl design in lighter blue at its four-split end. The interesting thing about the cloth was that it is known to suck out the life energy of anyone around whose arm it wraps, making it an incredible tool for Ryan, who wanted to increase his Aura reserve and his 'recharge' time.

" _Honedge"_ It responded as it jump onto his back and looped it's 'arm' around him to grab onto the end of its sheath like body.

Readjusting his bag to accommodate for Honedge's sheath, Ryan looked at the pokemon on his back and the two in front of him, before giving a ghost of a smile that he quickly shifted into a serious face and said,

"Come on let's give the others some time to get here."

They were currently at the exit leading to Mt. Coronet's summit and were immediately confronted by Galactic Grunts, bringing a grin to Ryan's face as they are giving him some warm up for the battle to come against Cyrus.

* * *

Finally getting to the entrance to the Spear Pillar he sees the international police officer, Looker, along with Team Rocket's most incompetent trio standing near a helicopter surrounding some Galactic Grunts and Commander Jupiter which were now tied down by a rope.

Looker was a middle aged looking man with short greyish hair that wears a brown, knee length overcoat on top of a dark-brown business suit. The suit was over a white dress shirt and had a lavender colored tie around his neck. On his feet he wore a dull black dress shoes

"Looker, glad to see you made it to the party." Ryan said, knowing that in this recent journey that Looker was usually around with Ash when it involved Team Galactic.

"Ah, Ryan I was wondering when you would show up Ash and -" Looker started but was interrupted when the sky suddenly darkened and lightning came down on the helicopter causing it to explode.

Knowing the danger Ryan, Gallade and Lucario got in front of them and put their hands in front of them creating a massive shield around them, blunting the damage done to them.

As they lower the shield, Jupiter said,

"It's time, a new world is being born and the old one destroyed!"

Angered, Looker turned and said,

"Don't you realize you'll be caught up in that destruction with all of us? Is that what you want?!"

Smiling crazily, Jupiter responded,

"Fine by me!"

Surprised by the response, Ryan was even more startled when he felt a surge of pain coming from down inside of Mt. Coronet. Ordering Lucario and Gallade to stay with Looker in case more lighting continued to fall, Ryan and by default Honedge, raced down the step leading to Spear Pillar as fast as he could stopping at the end of the steps shocked by the beings before him.

To his left stood Saturn, Mars and Charon all smiling evilly as a green sphere before them showed numerous universe inside of it. In front of him stood Cynthia with her Garchomp glaring at Cyrus' back as he admired the green sphere that would give him the new universe that he desired. And to his right stood his cousin Ash with a look that radiated determination and hope, next to him stood Brock and Dawn along with Ash's Pikachu, Dawn's Piplup, Brock's Croagunk and the Lake Trio.

But what made his blood run cold and caused him to visibly pale were the presence of Palkia and Dialga both surrounded by a red version of Arceus' 'crown' around them. Remembering that the last time the two 'gods' meet was in Alamos Town with Darkrai, Ryan started to fear the destruction that would be caused.

Then as the Galactic executives moved towards Cyrus and his 'new' universe, Palkia and Dialga attack Team Galactic. Turning to them, Cyrus said they could never understand what that universe truly meant to him.

Using the distraction, Ryan unsheathed Honedge and in a slashing motion and yelled,

"NIGHT SLASH!" Releasing a giant dark crescent shaped attack into the air.

As the attack flew through the air it not only alerted every one of his presence, but also connected with Palkia's 'crown', weakening it sufficiently.

Looking at his, now grinning 'little brother', Ryan yelled,

"We'll catch up later, Ash. Right now we need to help Palkia and Dialga."

Seeing Ash turn to his group and lead them in an all-out attack on Dialga's 'crown', Ryan smirked and told Honedge,

"Come on buddy, let's hit it with our best shot."

Getting a happy,

"Honedge."

Placing his both his hands on the hilt of Honedge's hilt, Ryan started to pump some of his aura into Honedge giving it a blue coloring. The same time blade Pokémon started to charge a Night Slash. Soon its blade started to glow a blue and purple color before Ryan slashed to blade towards Ruler of Space. As the attack was released the Night Slash appeared to be twice its normal size and had a light blue swirl wrapping around it.

When the attack connected, it effectively destroyed Palkia's 'crown' and released Palkia from Cyrus' control. Looking over at his cousin's group he saw that Dialga was also freed of Cyrus' control. With the 'god' of space and time freed, the portal was slowly closing much to Ryan's relief.

As the portal closed Cyrus slowly started to approach it saying,

"This is **MY** perfect world, governed by an order that does not require neither heart nor conscience."

Knowing what Cyrus was about to do, Ryan yelled,

" **CYRUS YOU IDIOT! GET AWAY FROM THEIR!** "

Seeing that the foolish leader wasn't backing away, Ryan darted toward him. Before anyone could stop them the two went through the portal. Seeing them go through the portal, Ash and Mars tried to follow them through the portal, only of Brock and Saturn to stop them respectively.

While Mars seemed to accept Saturn's wishes, Ash struggled against Brock's hold before yelling,

"Let me go Brock! I have to get him back! Please, Brock he's my family, I can lose him again. Please the portal hasn't closed just-"

His pleas were cut short when both Palkia and Dialga screeched and charged a Spacial Rend and Roar of Time respectively. Seeing this, Ash started to struggle more before yelling out with tears in his eyes,

" **RYAN!** "

* * *

As he floated through the empty space of the portal, Ryan saw Cyrus floating ahead of his, in total joy as he saw all the universes, oddly shaped into weird designs or symbols. Some of the few he saw were one with a weird lightning bolt and glasses, another with a weird wing design and a tail attached to it and another with a red circle that spiraled.

Knowing that this was a dangerous place to be in for someone as demented as Cyrus, Ryan started to pump Aura into his feet to catch his enemy and to get out of there to his family. As he reach the twisted leader, he reared his arm back and slammed an open palm into the back of Cyrus' head, effortlessly knocking him out. Adjusting the man under his arm, Ryan started to head back to the diminishing portal only to hear a screech coming from the other side of the portal. Racing toward the portal by he pushed more aura into his legs, he heard Ash yell,

" **RYAN!** "

Looking toward the portal, he saw his 'brother' being held back by Brock while Palkia and Dialga charged their signature moves, before firing it at the portal.

As if in slow motion, Ryan saw the look of horror on Ash and Dawn's faces, while Cynthia and Brock turned to their pokemon and looked to by trying to give them a command to stop the incoming attack, along with Honedge's assistance. Looking at the Galactic executives, he saw them with a look of defeat as they knew that the other group wouldn't stop the attack in time.

Then a flash of light blinded him, followed by him being pushed back into one of the universe and releasing his hold on Cyrus. As he floated backward, he saw his body get surrounded by red rose petals before slowly lost consciousness. In his barely, conscious states he looked toward the light and whisper,

"Ash... I'm sorry."

* * *

 **Added to the revision this time around is that I actually gave Ash a dad, granted he disappeared but he had one. Everything will look the same for those of you at read the story before, with the exception of some grammar edits and possibly events change, it all depends on if it helps my story.**

 **Also to clarify Ryan's abilities:**

 **-Aura Shields: Can create Shields out of his Aura**

 **-Aura Spheres: Can launch Aura as a projectile**

 **-Aura Vision: Can observe other's Auras and view their positions**

 **-Aura Infusing: Can pump aura into any object view touch**

 **-Emotion Reading: Can feel others emotions giving him the edge on his opponents**

 **-Emotion Release: Releases his Aura into a person to induce a certain Emotion in them**

 **His emotion reading can self-active when confronted with aggressive emotions, the other emotions can't be picked up automatically he must search for them.**


	2. Their legends begining

**Here's my second chapter of The ROAMing Guardians hope you enjoy.**

 **[I own nothing, but my O.C.]**

* * *

As his vision returned to him, Ryan realized he was staring up at the night sky, yet much to his shock the moon was now shattered. Slowly rising, he used a nearby brick wall as support and saw he was in an alleyway. After assessing his situation, he remembered that he jumped through the 'multiverse portal' as he once heard it named and was now in another universe. A universe where he had nothing.

Trying to ignore his new loneliness, he started to think what this universe had to offer and how he was going to keep his origins a secret.

After slowly getting out of his thoughts, Ryan notice that behind him the alley lead to the backdoor of a building that was behind a chain-link fence. In front of him was a moderately light street that Ryan had no idea where it lead to. Realizing the benefits going into the unknown guaranteed that his new life would be one without a criminal record, Ryan readjusted his courier bag, flicked on his hood and walked into the street.

Trying to get a 'feel' of what this world was like, Ryan activated his Aura Vision and was shocked to not only feel that the aura in everyone was active, but that his Aura Vision seemed to give him a clear reading on the whole city, rather than the usual cloudy quarter of a mile radius.

"This universe seems… interesting." He said, as he deactivated his aura vision.

Suddenly, he felt threatening auras near him, only to see some men in Black tuxedos enter a building about two block from him, causing him to run over to the building. Upon arriving at the building, he saw it was simple beige colored store by the name of _From Dust Till Dawn_.

Sticking to the shadows of a nearby alleyway he reactivating his aura vision, and saw that there were two peaceful auras in the store. What caught his attention was that one of the two auras was red, yet emitted only peaceful emotions rather than the usual malicious intent. Not only that, but the aura seemed to radiate of the person and looked to be releasing roses?

His thoughts were soon interrupted when one of the men's auras walked up to the rose creating aura, only to get thrown into the wall near the window. Quickly, another pulled out something and increase its anger toward the emitting aura, only to get running kick out the window by the aura, sending them both into the street in front of Ryan.

Deactivation his aura vision, he was surprised to see peaceful aura belonged to teenage girl about two year younger than him. She wore a red cloak over a black blouse with a corset style lace tying it shut and a black skirt with red trim at the bottom. All the black she wore helping emphasize her pale skin tone and black hair with red highlights. What surprised Ryan the most was the fact that as she got off the man she had kicked, a giant mechanical scythe formed from behind her waist. Wasting no time, she started twirling the heavy looking scythe like it was a baton, before stabbing it into the ground in front of her. Followed her action she removed the headphone she had on and pausing the music she had playing, getting a light chuckle from Ryan in response.

From the window he saw multiple Men in Tuxedos, but one man stood out.

He wore a black bowler hat with a red band. Around his green eyes, one of which was covered by long orange hair, he wore black eyeliner. He also wore a red-collared white suit and a small gray scarf. He had on black gloves with rounded sleeves, as well as long black pants and black shoes.

Slightly frustrated, the ginger man, said,

"Oookayyy, get her."

Hearing their boss words, the other three henchman to ran out of the store to attack the girl with a couple of red bladed swords. Smiling the girl balanced herself horizontally on her scythe, effectively dodging the first slash before swinging her legs and drop kick the attacker back through the broken window. Thinking they could get her by surprise the other two try to attack her from behind, prompting her to pull a trigger in the scythe causing a flash of light as she spun around and uppercut one of the grunts with the blunt end of her scythe, sending him flying into the air. The other got ground pounded, before the first grunt to be attacked recovered and started shooting at the girl, causing her to dodge at speeds that would make a Garchomp jealous.

Deciding that now was the time to strike, Ryan ran at the grunt and grabbing his shoulder, spun him around before delivering knockout punch, sending him to the leader's feet, surprising both the leader and the girl.

Getting over his surprise, the leader mockingly told the scattered men,

"You were worth every cent, truly you were."

Removing the cigar from his mouth he crushed it under his cane before turning his attention to Ryan and the girl and said,

"Well Red and Black, I think we can say it's been an eventful evening and as much as I'd like to stick around, I'm afraid this is where we part ways."

As he finish, he pointed his cane at them, before a small scope to appear at the end of the cane. Pulling a hidden trigger on his cane, he firing a massive firework like bullet at them. Seeing the danger they were in, Ryan got in front of the girl and raising both his hands creating an aura shield that limiting the damage the attack caused to only the asphalt around them.

He started feeling a little smug that the training he had with both Lucario and Honedge helped him use his aura in a way that was once life threatening and he felt little to no fatigue. Soon he rolled his shoulders and started to think of a way to continue training that way without an energy draining partner like Honedge.

Signing at the problem to be, he started to scan the area for the now disappeared leader. Feeling a smug aura behind them he turned to the building across from them and saw the ginger haired man making his way onto the roof of the building. Turning to the girl, he motion to the building to get her on the same page.

The shopkeeper, who had finally been able to get over the shock of a teenage girl defending his store from a gang of criminal without breaking a sweat, appeared at the door frame slightly shaken. Seeing the shopkeeper was okay, the girl asked,

"You okay if we go after him?"

Hearing a grunt of approval the girl and Ryan, ran up to the building to catch up with the leader. The girl launched herself up the building with her scythe- gun, while Ryan pumped small amounts of aura into his feet to run up half of the building and climb the rest of it with ease. Arriving on the roof they saw the leader about halfway through the roof.

"Hey!" yelled the girl to get his attention.

Stopping at near the edge the man muttered,

"Persistent."

At that moment, a giant airship, unlike any Ryan had ever seen, came from the base of the building and shone it's headlight at the two. Using their momentary blindness to his advantage, the leader boarded the aircraft. Once on board, he pulled out a big red crystal of some sorts from his pocket and yelled,

"End of the line, kids!"

Throwing the crystal at them, he waited for it to land at their feet before aiming his cane-gun at the crystal.

Not knowing what the crystal was, Ryan started at it in confusion before seeing the man aim at the crystal. Immediately Ryan's protective nature rear its head as he pushed the girl back created another aura shield in front of him. The moment the crystal got hit, a huge explosion engulfed them both, blocking them from the leader's sight.

Grinning at his 'victory' the man cheered as he saw the flames engulfed the boy. His cheering was soon cut short as the smoke cleared revealing him unharmed with a shield like the one he made earlier in front of him.

Suddenly the Ryan made a gripping motion and pulled the shield towards him before forming an Aura Sphere in his now cupped hands. As the sphere formed, Ryan pushed his hand out towards the ginger and the ship, causing it have to twist to dodge the sphere.

"That was reckless." A serious voice said from behind him.

Slightly surprised by the new voice, Ryan turned and started in shock.

Before him was a middle-aged woman with very light-blonde hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face. Her eyes were bright green and she wore thin ovular glasses. She had teal hanging earrings, with a similar bead on her collar. She wore a white long-sleeved suit that exposed part of her chest, and puffy sleeves that tighten near the wrist before spreading back out near her hands. Her lower body had a black business skirt with buttons running in a vertical line up the front of it and lighter black-brown stockings. She wore black boots with brown heels, and a tattered cape that was purple on the inside and black on the outside, decorated with a row of diamond-shaped brown beads going horizontally across her cape. Above the line of beads, there appeared to be an emblem of a tiara. In her hand was riding crop.

What shocked him most about this woman was her appearance reminded him so much of his Aunt Ilene that he almost bowed to her, but stopped himself when he noticed her serious look rather than the Queen's natural serene appearance.

Rather than waiting for his answer, the woman waved her crop and gathered up the remnants of the red crystal before firing it at the aircraft in a Draco Meteor like effect, much to the younger girl's amazement.

As the attack hit is caused the ginger to wobble and stagger to the co-pit as he took control of the ship and the previous pilot started her assault on the residents of the rooftop.

As the mysterious woman shot fire of some sort at them, the blond threw up a shield stopping most of the attack but caused some splatter to occur. Suddenly the splatter became a swirl and shot up as red shards that tried to impale the blond woman, only for her to backflip out of the way. Spinning her riding crop in a circular motion, the remaining shards began to form a purple spear that raced towards the aircraft. The woman on the airship shot more fire at the spear destroying most of it, but the blond used the remaining shards to try and hit the now piloting ginger. Seeing the attack coming, the leader tilted the aircraft slightly so the shards would bounce of the wings of the aircraft.

Once again in control of the shards, the blond created three whips out of the shards and had them surround the aircraft. Knowing the attack could bring down the aircraft, the shadow covered woman pushed her arms outward and disintegrated the remaining shards.

Deciding it was time to help, the girl pushed a button on her scythe and the blade collapsed in on itself forming the barrel of a sniper rifle as she opened fire on the pilot, only for her to block the bullets with her bare hand.

Ryan, getting over his initial shock at the woman's appearance, started to create an Aura Sphere in his hands again. The moment the sphere was charged, he launched it at the aircraft. Seeing the projectile head for the aircraft woman shoot it down with one of her own fireballs.

Having fought long enough the pilot swung her right arm outward creating five orange glowing swirls at the rooftop resident's feet. Remembering what danger behind this attack, Ryan tackled the girl out of the way as the blond front-flipped out of the line of fire. Using the distraction to their advantage, the leader activated the aircraft's main engines getting them out of their fast.

After getting up as well as helping the girl up and making sure she was okay, Ryan turned towards the woman with his Queen's face and saw her openly glaring at them.

"You're a Huntress." The girl exclaimed with glee before childishly asking,

"Can I have your autograph?"

* * *

"I hope you realize that your actions will not be taken lightly you two. You put yourselves and others in great danger." said the woman as she paced behind them belittling their bravery.

Ryan sat there quietly, trying to look unaffected by the words as her face sent sorrow through him for having abandoned his kingdom.

"They started!" The girl argued

"If it were up to me, you'd both be sent home with a pat on the back… and a slap on the wrist!" the blond woman stated as she slapped her riding crop on to the table at the latter notion, causing the girl to yelp and jump back while Ryan looked down in slight shame.

Having fought almost every criminal organization in his universe, threats were nothing more than empty word of hate with my real intention. Yet she had enough venom in her threat combined with her face having such a disapproving quality to it that he pictured his aunt's face carrying the same look he had to reaction.

"But, there is someone here who would like to meet you both." The blond integration said causing the girl to slowly go back to a sitting position and Ryan to raise an eyebrow as to who would want to speak with two teenager currently in police custody.

Out of the darkened came a middle-aged man with tousled gray hair and thin brown eyes. On his face he wore shaded glass spectacles and a dark-green scarf with a small, purple, cross-shaped emblem on it. He wore an unzipped black suit over a black-buttoned vest, with a green undershirt underneath. On his lower body he wore black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants. Interestingly, he had black eyebrows, suggesting that he may have had black hair when he was younger. In his hands were a plate of cookies and a cup of coffee.

As he places the plate of cookies in front of them he says,

"Ruby Rose, you have silver eyes." Confusing both Ryan and the now named Ruby.

"So where did you learn to do this." Presenting them a tablet that showed Ruby's fight with the suited gang members.

Shyly, she responded, "Sig-Signal Academy?"

"They taught you how to use the most dangerous weapons ever designed!?" The man ask, hints of anger and curiosity in his voice.

"Well one teacher in particular" She responded.

"I see" the man responded motioning her to get a cookie for the plate in front of them. As soon as she was given permission to get a cookie, Ruby hesitantly got one and eat it followed by her devouring the cookies on the plate.

"It's just that I've only seen one other scythe wielder of that skill before, a dusty old crow." The man states, Ryan noticing that he is using the cookies to gain her trust and learn more about who taught her.

"Umm, thas my unkel grrr." She said with a mouthful of cookies, causing Ryan and the two adults to look at her with disappointment.

Forcing herself to swallow the cookie she said,

"Sorry, that's my uncle Qrow. He's a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage when he took me under his wing. Now I'm all like 'wwwwhhhhaaaa, chiaaaaa hhhhhoooo.'" Causing Ryan to smile lightly at her childish actions.

"So I've noticed" was the man's response.

"And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing at a school designed to train warriors?" Upon hearing this, Ryan's curiosity was peaked to hear this girl's reason.

"Well, I want to be a Huntress." She responds.

"You want to slay monsters?" asked the man, causing Ryan to wonder if there were literal monsters in this world.

"Yeah. I only have two more years at Signal and then I'm going to apply to Beacon. See, my sisters starting there this year and she's trying to become a Huntress. I'm trying to become a Huntress so I want to help people, but my parents always taught us to help other, so I thought, oh you know, I might as well make a career out of it. I mean the police are all right, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting, cool and giah, you know." She said speeding up as she spoke.

While Ryan didn't catch everything she said, he got enough to know that she fought the gang not because they attacked her, but because they attacked the store itself. Thinking on it he might try and become a Huntsman to keep attention away from himself if he were to confront more men like the ones last night,

Turning to Ryan, the man asked, "And you Mr. …"

"Ketchum, Sir. Ryan Ketchum" Ryan responded trying to inform the man.

"Okay Mr. Ketchum, where did you learn to do this with your Aura?" the man asked while showing Ryan a video of him throwing up the Aura Shield and forming his Aura Sphere.

"My father and a partner taught me." Ryan answered.

"Your father and a partner taught you how to control your aura to the point where you could form projectiles and shields around not only yourself but other with it as well?" the man asked, with the same curiosity that he had when he asked Ruby where she learned her scythe skills.

"Yes sir" Ryan answered

"And why would they do that, when you could have learned simpler aura control in any school here in Vale?" the man asked, finally giving Ryan the name of the place he was in.

"I've been traveling the world since I was ten, sir. I don't have much time to learn things in school." Ryan answered half truthfully.

While he was a traveler, his home was still Rota and despite not learning much in an actual school environment, his aunt taught him manners and some advanced leveled math and science, though he didn't know that would help him in this world.

His answer got different reactions from everyone in the room. Ruby was surprised that he had started traveling at such a young age. The woman was shocked that any parents would be so irresponsible as to allow their child leave home and explore the savage world at such a young age. The man was both curious and surprised. Surprised at the combat skills the young man before him possessed without any parental guidance, yet curious as to how a boy who claimed to have been traveling alone since he was ten could also possesses such manners.

"Well then, do you two know who I am?" the man asked, after a few minutes of silence in which everyone trying to grasp the concept of this young man traveling alone for five years.

"You're Professor Ozpin, you're the headmaster of Beacon." Ruby stated calmly.

Ryan wasn't surprised to hear this, as he figured that this man had something to do with Huntsman and Huntresses if he was so interested in their backgrounds.

"Hello" Ozpin said casually

"Nice to meet you." Was Ruby's response.

"Good evening, Sir." Ryan responded.

"Would you two want to come to my school?" he asked both of them.

Ruby responded almost immediately saying

"More than anything."

Turning to Ryan he waited patiently until Ryan answered,

"It would be an honor, sir"

Finally turning to the blond woman, who merely huffed turned to away from his, Ozpin responded,

"Well okay."

* * *

Smiling at his acceptance into a school where he could protect those who needed it, Ryan stretched his slightly stiffened muscles as he got out of his seat. With Ruby practically teleporting out the door to tell her sister, leaving behind a trail of roses like her aura created, he decided to leave in a calmer way than the younger teen.

Before he was even halfway to the door, he heard Professor Ozpin clear his throat. Turning to the gray haired man he ask,

"Yes, sir?"

"Mr. Ketchum… can we discuss your 'sudden' appearance?" Ozpin asked with a serious face.

Not wanting to get caught in a lie, Ryan remained calm and asked,

"Sir?"

"It's no use hiding it Mr. Ketchum. We know you're not a traveler." The woman stated with a glare.

"Yes. It would seem as though… Mr. Ketchum… you don't exist." Ozpin said, while casually drinking from his coffee mug.

He then proceeded showing him a video of his sudden appearance in the alleyway through a flash of light and laying there for about thirty minutes before he finally woke up, followed by a screen with his name on it that flashed the words 'No record'

"Now I want to know who you really are and where you learned how to use your aura in such a way that most who attempted it would die."

Signing, Ryan said,

"As I already said my name is Ryan Ketchum. I was taught my aura trick by my father and partner."

"There's no use lying Mr. Ketchum. You're already in a police station, all we have to do is void your release forms." The blond started with a glare.

Flinching at the woman's glare, Ryan said,

"Though I never said I learned them in this universe."

"This universe? Are you implying that you not from Remnants?" Ozpin asked curiously.

"Is that what this universe is called? Remnants? Odd name but then again you might think the same of my universe." Ryan responded.

"You honestly think that we would believe such a senile tale?" The woman asked, the venom in her voice almost physical.

"And you have proof of this claim?" Ozpin asked.

"Sir?" Glynda asked, completely shocked the Ozpin would believe this obvious lie.

"In my bag, sir." Ryan stated calmly.

"Interesting. Mr. Ketchum. And what is in your bag that can prove your story?" Ozpin ask, before taking another sip of his coffee.

"My identification and a few other items that I'm sure you don't have in this universe." Ryan responded.

"Very well then, Mr. Ketchum. I shall see your proof." Ozpin responded, prompting a look of disbelief from Glynda and a smile from Ryan.

Sighing, Ryan looked at the two adults before him and said,

"Well I hope didn't have any plans after the interrogation because the proof is only the beginning of the story."

* * *

"Well that took longer than I thought."

As he exited the police station, Ryan saw that the shattered moon was now high above his head signaling that it was around midnight, meaning he spent about an hour or two explaining his life story to the two teacher.

He chucked lightly at the look of shock on Professor Ozpin and the Queen's doppelganger, who later introduced herself as Glynda Goodwitch's faces when he told them why he was so adamant of protecting his family and friends. Despite the looks of shock he got when he mentioned Ash's constant life threatening situations, he also could also remember the reprimanding that Glynda gave him when he told them how his Aura levels got so strong. While he was thinking about the conversation that he just had, he failed to notice the red blur shooting towards him.

Before he could even react, he found himself on the ground under, a now panting Ruby, who was frantically shouting sorry. Getting out of his shock at the girl sudden appearance Ryan asked,

"Uh, Ruby? It okay really, but would you mind getting off of me?"

This only caused a new wave of apologies, before she finally got off and explained how after she left the police station she ran straight home only to stop a block away when she remembered that he had nowhere to go till Beacon started. So she ran back and thought that he had already left the station so she spent that past hour looking all around the city and she had just decided to cut through in front of to police station to look at the other side of the city, when she 'found' him.

Realizing what the girl was offering him, Ryan started to try to come up with and excuse,

"No, that's alright Ruby I'm used to sleeping outside and beside I wouldn't want to burden your parents with having got take care of a complete stranger for a week."

While he didn't feel comfortable going to a home in a universe he had just gotten too out of fear of insulting her, despite Ozpin clarifying that mostly everything was the same with the exception of no pokemon and other additions to the mix though the headmaster said he would leave the additions to him to discover.

At the mention of parents, the energetic girl's face turned melancholy for a second. Despite quickly shifting back to a false smile, the sadness was there long enough for Ryan to pick up on it and know not to mention parents as a plural again.

"No it's alright, really dad won't mind since you help me." Ruby responded cheerfully, but the pain was clearly underlined her voice. Before he could ask if she was okay, she had his wrist in an iron grip and practically drags him along and adding,

"Besides you only seem to have that bag on you for essentials, so my sister and I could help you get new cloth."

Looking down, Ryan saw that his jacket and his pants now sported singe marks from the constant explosive assaults. Before he could respond, Ruby was already bombarding to him with questions about what he had seen on his journey and if he had a weapon, all while leading him to the house that he would rest in for the next week until Beacon started.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading, AuraGuardianRyan out.**


	3. The Shining Beacon

Here a Christmas present from me to you I'll try to get the other chapter uploaded by New Years Eve as well

 **[I own nothing but my O.C]**

 **{Sorry if my Christmas comment offended anyone}**

* * *

As the airship started to ascended, Ryan leaned against the railing and looked out the window, watching the first city he had seen since his arrival in Remnants, coming into full view. The city was pretty large and full of different districts, reminding him of Luminous City in the Kalos region.

As he looked out the window, his eyes focusing on his new appearance from the reflection of the window. He now had a clean shave and his usually pulled back hair was now freely on his back with some of it draped slightly over his left eye. He wore a gray long sleeve dress shirt, with both his sleeves rolled up to the middle of his forearm. Over his dress shirt he wore a dark blue button down vest with a silver rectangle design going vertically down the center, mainly around the buttons and was made of a material that was tightly sewn together making as tough as armor, but lightweight and easy to move in. Slung around his chest, was one of the only things he had left from his home universe, his courier bag, now filled with goodies he made during the week. On his feet he now wore a pair of black, loose fitting, calf high boots with strap on the back to tie them shut.

On his back he had his new weapon clipped in place. An exact replica of Honedge, with the exception of the sash that Honedge had at the end of its pommel. When he found out he had to have a weapon to become a hunter he decided to wield a blade that he was more accustomed to wielding. Thought in the week he had spent in Remnants the blade had gained a few marks from his sparing matches with Ruby's half-sister, Yang Xiao Long.

Yang was a seventeen years old, blond with lilac eyes. She wore a tan short sleeved, button up vest with gold trim on it, over a yellow crop top with a black burning rose insignia on it. She also wore short shorts under a tan half skirt that was white on the inside. On her feet, she wore knee-high, brown, leather boots over two orange socks, that were higher than the boots, but for some reason they were different heights. On her left leg she wore a grey bandana for some reason and on her hands she wore black fingerless gloves with _Ember Celica_ , disguised as gold cuffs, covering most of her wrist.

Despite her happy go lucky nature, Ryan found they shared a mutually respect for one another after finding out about her protectiveness of Ruby. Thinking back to the day they meet he found she was freer willed than him in her response but protective nonetheless.

* * *

 **[Flashback Begins]**

* * *

Yang was pacing the living room with a worried expression on her face, her father and Uncle Qrow were off on a mission, so she was in charge of taking care of Ruby and Zwei.

A few hours ago she had gone looking into a lead on her unknown mother's whereabouts at a club. After talking to Junior, the club owner, and getting nothing, but a few bruises and possible property damage charges for destroying Junior's club, she found Ruby walking outside the club. They talked for a little, before Ruby decided to go to the store to check out the new gun magazines, while Yang decided to go house to rest.

The problem was, Ruby still hadn't gotten home and the blonde was getting worried. Thinking she had waited long enough, Yang finally decided to start looking around town for her on her motorcycle. But as she started to get on the motorcycle when she heard.

"Yang? I'm home, sorry I'm late something happened at the store."

Relieved, Yang started running straight to the door, but once she got to the garage door she started to hear Ruby talking with someone. As she opened the garage door she hear a guy's voice talking to Ruby. Slightly surprised, Yang ran to the living room and upon entering, saw Ruby was arguing with a handsome looking, long haired boy wearing all black with a scar on his face along with a thin stubbly beard.

Looking at the scene before in confusion, Yang noticed that they both looked like they had been in a fight. The boy's jacket and pants slightly singed, while Ruby's cloth looking dust covered and had a couple of tears here and there.

"Ruby? Who's this?" She asked in confusion.

"Oh Sis. This is Ryan. I meet him at the store and brought him home to stay till we start at Beacon in a week."

"Huh? Ruby can I talk to you in the kitchen alone." Yang said nervously, while keeping an eye on the stranger her younger half-sister brought home with her.

"Sure, Ryan just take a seat on the couch while we talk for a minute." Ruby told him as she walked over to the kitchen along with Yang.

The moment she stepped into the kitchen, Ruby felt Yang's knuckles rasp the top of her head with great force.

" **OW!** Yang!" Ruby whimpered as she held her head with head eyes in a comical tearing form.

"Don't _Yang_ me!" Her sister hissed out.

"What were you thinking bringing a stranger home with you when Dad and Uncle Qrow are away?!" She continued.

"But Yang, he helped me! At the store there were these thieves and they tried to steal the dust and I took them down like 'high-ay'. And he was there and he helped me fight them and after we meet this Huntress who took us to the police station and introduced us to _The_ Professor Ozpin and he interrogated us for a bit before offering us a position at Beacon. Then when I was coming to tell you the news I remembered that Ryan didn't have a place to stay, so I thought 'OH he helped me so now I can help him' and so there he is. In the Livingroom." Ruby explained in a hurry.

Looking at her sister in shock, for a few minutes, Yang tried to process what Ruby told her.

 _|Okay, okay so cute boy saved sister. Sister and cute boy get arrested making him bad boy. Bad boy and sister get offered place in Beacon with me this year. Sister then helps bad boy, now cute boy again, by offering him a place to stay for the week. Damn, I have to send Ruby out more often to get me cute boys.|_ Yang thought.

"So Ruby You brought him here because he helped you against a couple of thugs, right? Not because he's hot of anything?" Yang teased.

"What?! N-no! Yang I was just trying to be a good person that's all." Ruby replied with a blush.

"Oh? Are you sure I mean-" Before Yang could continue her teasing they both heard a loud thud coming from the living room followed by laughter.

Curiosity getting the best of them, the peaked out the kitchen door and found Ryan laughing on the floor getting his face licked by an equally happy Zwei.

"Hey come on now. I know I probably have Lucario's scent on me but at least give me a warning, pup." Ryan chided as he laughed from Zwei 'attack'.

As they continued to watch him, they saw him reach for Zwei's belly and start to rub it causing the Corgi to stop its attack and enjoy its belly rub.

"See even Zwei likes him." Ruby argued.

Hearing the girl's voice Zwei immediately got out of Ryan's belly rub and ran up to her to play with his master.

Smiling at the dog's playful attitude, Ryan looked over at the two girls before him. While Ruby was distracted playing with Zwei, He noticed her sister was still staring at him with an emotionless face, but her emotions told him she was weary of him.

"If I'm bothering you, I can leave. I'm sure I can find somewhere to camp out." Ryan said as he reached for his bag.

"NO!" Ruby yelled out as she used her semblance to appear in front of him, Zwei secured in her arms.

"You can't go you said it yourself, you don't have anywhere to go. Please Yang let him stay." She begged with Zwei barking in agreement.

"No Ruby, it's okay really. I don't want to intrude." Ryan said, as he made his way to the door.

"Wait!" Yang said

"Look I may not know you but Ruby did say you saved her earlier tonight so I guess you can stay." Yang said.

"No it's okay, really. If I'm making you uncomfortable I should leave." Ryan argued.

Just as he was going to open the door Ruby again used her semblance and appeared in front of him, using a cute pouting face.

"Please don't go." She asked.

* * *

 **[Flashback Ends]**

* * *

After that she keep up her face till he finally agreed to stay but convinced them to let them sleep on the couch, to give them their privacy.

Getting out of his thoughts, Ryan turned to see Yang hugging Ruby and tell her how proud she was of Ruby skipping two years ahead and joining Beacon at fifteen, only for Ruby to say that she just wants to be a normal student and not seen as special.

Ryan semi-agreed with her, she had a point in not wanting to be seen as special because that put more pressure on her to stand out above the crowd. Yet she humbled herself to much in saying that defeating most of those thugs by herself was nothing. Ryan as really on the same boat as her, but he didn't care as much after being put through this since he became an Aura Guardian.

Soon their attention was turned to a news report about the man that attacked Ruby and Ryan, Roman Torchwood, was still at large, followed by a report of the attack on a peaceful Faunus civil rights protest by the White Fang.

From what Ryan learned over the week, Faunus were normal people with some animal traits, such as Ursaring like ears or Ratata like tails and such. The White Fang was a group of Faunus that wanted to be seen as equal to humans, but used violence to get their point across, worsening the publics of view of the Faunus.

Soon the report was interrupted by his aunt's doppelgänger, appearing on the screen.

Much to his displeasure, he still couldn't find a way to look at the professor without being reminded of his family member. For the time being he had decided to treat her with respect.

"Hello and welcome to Beacon, "

"Who's that?" Asked Yang.

", my name is Glynda Goodwitch,"

"Oh." Yang responded, slightly embarrassed

", you are amongst the privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world."

As Glynda disappeared, Ruby and Yang go to the spot that Ryan had previously occupied, while Ryan leaned against the wall and thought of the things he had learned during his week in Remnants.

This world was inhabited by three major entities: Humans, Faunus and Grimm.

The Grimm are creatures of pure darkness with their only known goal is to destroy anything in sight, yet little is known of their origins. While he was a little horrified by the fact that Huntsmen killed the Grimm at first, he began to accept that they had to die after reading the reports of the massacre they could cause. What shocked him to learn is that Grimm had no Aura, but it helped ease his mind to the idea that he was no truly ending a life.

The world also relied on a powerful crystal known as Dust. From what he learned Dust had different attributes depending on the color of the Dust crystal, like the red crystal that Roman threw at Ruby and him during their fight.

Though it had to be activated by aura which lead to his next discovery. Everyone in this universe knew about Aura, unlike in his universe where only a select few knew about aura. While it came as a surprise to him for a while he came to understand that it was a necessity when facing Grimm.

Though those with aura had another advantage in this world, their Semblances. These Semblances are physical representation of one's aura and character. For Ruby it's her want to protect others that gave her the ability to run fast enough to seemingly teleport. Yang can absorb damage she takes in a fight and uses it to strengthen her hits, something he attributed to her having a depressing childhood, yet never showing it on her face.

The moment he found out about both Yang and Ruby's childhood, Ryan took it upon himself to stand by them and help them much like an older brother. And much to their surprise in both their cases he was older having been born a month before Yang, different universe or not.

"Ew Yang, grouse you have puke in your shoe!"

Thrown out of his reminiscing, Ryan saw an unusual sight.

Running passed him was a blond haired boy around his height, if not shorter, wearing a black, short sleeved, hoodie with orange on the inside of the hood. Over the hoodie he wore shoulder guards and a chest piece. His pants were simple blue jeans and his belt conceived a sheathed sword. His gloved hands were covering his mouth and some puke was leaking for the holes in his fingers.

Looking in Ruby and Yang's direction he saw Yang hopping over to the back of the airship on one leg, while Ruby is holding herself and shivers slightly. Raising an eyebrow Ryan decided to not get involved, and continued to look out the window. After a while he saw that they were approaching a dock onto the school.

As the airship docked and everyone exit, the trio saw the blond boy throwing up in the trashcan. Walking deeper onto the campus, Ruby and Yang stopped and stared at the school in amazement at its design. Ryan had an impressed look on his face, mainly at the fact that this school was the size of Cameron Castel, if not bigger. Turning to see the two girl's reactions, he is surprised to see a chibi form of Ruby floating around and gawking over all the weapons around, pointing at them and naming their combinations. Just as she starts to go after one of the students to see their weapon, Yang dragged her back by the hood saying,

"Easy there, little sister their just weapons."

"Just weapons," Ruby counters. ", they're an extension of ourselves, they're apart of us. Oh they're so cool."

"Well I haven't seen you get this excited about weapons before Ruby not even your own. Aren't you happy with it?" Ryan asked, as he approached them.

"Of course I'm happy with _Crescent Rose_." Ruby responded. "I just really like seeing new ones. It's like meeting new people, but better."

"Ruby, come on why don't you go and try to make friends of your own?" Yang asks, while pulling Ruby's hood over her eyes

"But, why would I need friends when I have you guys?" Ruby asked with an almost confused.

"Well, actually-" Yang started before she was surrounded by people that Ryan could only assume were friend and they ran off, causing both Ryan and Ruby to spin in place, swirly eyes now adoring their eye sockets. As she spun in place Ruby started to lose her balance and fell on a pile of luggage that was left in the area. Ryan, regaining his sense of balance, went over to help her up only to heard someone shout,

"What are you doing?"

Turning Ryan sees a pale skinned girl with full white, waist length hair standing behind him. She wore a light blue bolero jacket, with a red inside, over an equally blue colored thigh high dress. Her feet bore a pair of white, platform boots with a similar shade of red on the inside as the jacket. What caught his attention was the scar running down her left eyes, to him the scar looked to be caused by a blade of some sorts, but he wasn't about to ask out of concern of her privacy. On her hip, was a rapier of some sort with a revolver like cylinder filled with a different colors in each of the chambers.

"Do you have any idea of the damage you could have caused?!" She shouted at Ruby, while Ryan help the former up to her feet.

"Uuuuhhhh?" Ruby started, as she picked up one of the luggage cases and tried to hand it to the white haired assailant

"Give me that..." she said yanking it from Ruby's hands,

"... This is dust mined and purified from the Schnee quarry."

Seeing Ruby's confused face she continued,

"What are you brain dead, Dust: Fire, Water, Lightning, Energy. Are you even listening to me? Is any of this sinking in? What do you have to say for yourself!?" She asked, all the while shaking a slightly open, dust vial in her hand, causing some of the dust to fly out onto Ruby's face.

Seeing that Ruby was at the point of sneezing, Ryan tried to create an Aura Shield around the white haired girl, only for Ruby to release her sneeze and covered the girl in a Dust cloud, ice crystals and sparks coming out of the cloud. As the cloud dissipated, it revealed the girl, now soot covered. Unbeknownst to them the Dust vial was sent flying to the feet of a figure reading a book, giving them an audience.

"Unbelievable, this is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about." She said

"I'm really, really sorry." Ruby responded, looking uncomfortable about being yelled at.

"You complete dolt, what are you even doing here? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?" Asked the white hair girl.

"This isn't your ordinary combat school. It's not just sparring and practicing you know. We're here to fight monsters, so watch where you're going!"

"Hey, I said I was sorry, Princess." Ruby said, approaching the girl.

Ryan, seeing that the girl wasn't stepping back, started to subtly pump a calming Aura into his hands in case they started to fight. Before anyone could make the first move, a voice behind them said,

"It's heiress actually."

Turning, Ryan found himself facing a milk, white skinned girl about his height. She had a long, wavy, midnight black with a bow on top, which seemed odd for her age. She wore a black vest with coattails over a white sleeveless undershirt. Her left arm had a black sleeve with a silver band on her triceps. She wore shorts, not as short as Yang's but still pretty short, over a pair of stockings that started of black at her hips and turn purple by the time they reached her ankles. On her feet she wore black low-heel boots. What caught Ryan's eyes were the big sword like weapon on her back and her amber eyes that seemed almost cat-like.

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. One of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world." She said

"Finally, some recognition." Responded, the now named, Weiss.

"The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." Continued the mysterious black themed girl

"What how dare the… the nerve of some…" Weiss shouted angrily, getting a chuckle from Ruby and caused Ryan to wonder just how trained in etiquette this universe's royalty was, granted not all of the royalty he had met used 'proper' etiquette around him nor did he to them on occasions.

Frustrated, Weiss walked over and yanked the dust vial from the girl's hand, before walking away in a huff leaving a couple of mysterious butler to pick up her luggage.

Still trying to make some friends Ruby yelled out,

"I promise I'll make it up to you." Seeing that Weiss wasn't going to respond, Ryan merely patted Ruby on the back to sooth her.

Trying to make a friend of his own, Ryan turning to face the black clad girl only to find her walking away.

 _|I guess she's not one for interaction.|_ He thought to himself before hearing a thud behind him. Turning he saw Ruby had slumped to the ground before saying,

"Welcome to Beacon." as she closed her eyes and laying there.

Signing at the sight of his friend's misery Ryan merely said,

"Don't be sad Ruby, she just wasn't the best choice for making friends." Not noticing the shadows approaching them, when suddenly he heard,

"Hey, need some help down there."

Turning Ryan saw the blond guy from the airship accompanied by another guy that was currently trying to help Ruby up.

The guy had messy, brown-grey, neck length hair that covered some of his right eye. He wore an open, artichoke green, hoodie. Under that he wore, a gray t-shirt, with an emerald coyote paw on it, which tucked into a pair of dark green jeans with ash colored knee guard and a handgun holster strapped to his thigh. On his feet had a pair of gray sneakers. Around his neck, Ryan noticed, he wore an ash colored, elbow length scarf that seemed to slide on if needed. The colors he wore make his peach skin stand out as well as his gray-green colored eyes that resembled jackal eyes.

Reaching a hand down to help her, the boy said,

"Aren."

"Ruby." She responded as she accepted the helping hand, looking a little fluttered.

"Thank for the help."

"Any time." he responded while pointing at the blond behind him, an action that made Ryan realize that he was around both Ruby and Weiss' height making both the blonde and himself tower over the two.

"And this lovable blonde is Jaune." He continued, causing Jaune to smile and shyly waves at them.

"Uh… And you are?" Jaune asked, while looking at Ryan.

"Ryan. Ryan Ketchum." he responded stretching out his hand,

"Nice to meet you, Ryan" responded Aren, as he shook Ryan's hand.

Turning back to Jaune, Ruby chuckled and asked,

"Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?" Getting a laugh from Aren, a sign from Jaune and caused Ryan to look down at the ground while shaking his head in disapproval.

* * *

"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common problem that people let on." Jaune argued as the quartet walked on through the school.

"Look, I'm sorry. Vomit Boy was the first thing that came to mind" responded Ruby, causing Aren to snicker a little.

"Oh yeah, what if I called you Craterface?" Jaune countered

"Hey, that explosion was an accident!" Ruby fired back

"Well the name's Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, ladies love it." Jaune responded

"Do they now?" asked Aren, a sweatdrop forming on his head.

"Well they will, well I hope they will. I mean my mom always says, eh never mind." He responded quickly trying to get out of the awkward situation.

Trying to change the subject, Ruby reached for _Crescent Rose_ and say,

"So, I got this thing."

"Whoa, is that a scythe?" Jaune asked while using Ryan as a human shield.

"It's also a customizable, high impact sniper rifle." She responded with a glee.

"A what?" Jaune asked, confusion written all over his face.

"It's a gun Jaune and a pretty strong on at that." Answered Aren, before Ruby had time to answer.

"I'm more of a varied guy myself." Aren said, as he removed his handgun from its holster and pulled out a cylindrical handle from behind his belt.

Pressing a button on the handle a blade extended from it. The blade itself had a small serrated edge with a slightly curving handle. Putting the blade and the handgun together they suddenly shifted into a gray sniper rifle with a hollowed out butt. Pressing another button on the entire sniper rifle compacted itself to a smaller light weight form.

Unclipping the scope from the assault rifle, he clipped it back in place while the large weapon in his hand shifted into its smaller handgun form.

"A Tang Tanto and Beretta Px4 Storm that combine to form a Barrett M82 and shifts into a Beretta Rx4. What about you Ryan?" Aren asked.

Smiling, Ryan unsheathed _Guardian's Guild_.

"It's a medieval war sword that… " he said as he pressed a button on the handle, causing it to retract its blade and sword guard before stretching another foot or so,

" … becomes a bo-staff with some earth dust to give it extra strength … " Pressing two buttons in the middle of the staff it, causing it to split in two before the sword guards came out and the blade expanded outward on one side

"… and a pair of tonfa blades. "He said before connecting the flat end of the blades, causing the original sword handle to appear before he sheathed his weapon.

Giving an impressed whistle Aren said,

"Can't say you aren't prepared for a fight. But, no guns?" he added

"I have my own ranged weapons." Ryan said cryptically.

During the week he had found that gun were more openly seen in this universe, much to his disdain. So while he decided to rely on his aura for ranged weapons, he also decided to keep an open mind on weapons seeing as how unlike in his universe were gun could kill with a well-placed bullet, here bullets could leave bruises at most because of aura.

Turning to Jaune and asked,

"Anyways, what do you have Jaune?"

"Oh, uh, I got this sword." He responded, as he unsheathed a simple sword with a blue handle, almost like the form _Guardian's Guild_ was currently in but much longer.

"Ooohhh." Ruby said with a look of interest on her face.

"Yeah, I got a shield too." He added as he revealed the sheath to become a shield as well.

"So, do they do anything other than the obvious?" Aren asks, as he pokes the shield, causing it to slip out of Jaune's grip and bounce around as he tries to catch it.

"The shield gets smaller…eh… so when I get tired of carrying it, I can just, put it away." Jaune answers nervously.

"But, wouldn't it weigh the same?" Ruby asks.

"Yeah, it does." Jaune replied, with a depressed look on his face.

"Well, I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons, I guess I did go a little overboard in designing it." Ruby said, getting a surprised look from both Jaune and Aren.

"Whoa time out! You made this beauty, Ruby? That's so cool!" Yelled Aren with a huge smile on his face, failing to notice the red that tinted Ruby's face after the complement.

"W-well yeah, all students at Signal forge their own weapons. Didn't you guys make yours?" She asked, trying hid the blush.

"I did, but it's nowhere nearly as original as yours." Said Aren

"What about you Ryan?"

"Well, Ruby actually helped me make it. I kind of traveled a lot so I never needed any weapon. I just sketched up the forms and she taught me how to forge it." He responded, before looking at Jaune.

"It's a hand-me down. My great-great grandfather used it to fight in the war." Jaune said with an almost depressed look on his face.

"Sounds more like a family heirloom to me." Said Aren, with a questioning look as to Jaune's reaction.

"Well I like it." Ruby said happiness oozing off of her.

"Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."

This caused Ryan to wonder what classics were classified as since, he had only ever see transforming weapons in this universe and Honedge was the only sword he had ever used that could technically transform, though he still hadn't evolved it.

"Yeah, the classics." Jaune half-heartedly responded.

"So, why did you help Ruby out when she was on the ground?" Ryan asked, curious as to why two complete strangers would help a couple of teens that just caused an explosion.

"Hey, why not. My mom always says, 'Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet'." responded Jaune.

"Nice way of putting it, Jaune." Said Aren

"Do any of you guys know where we're going?" Ryan questioned, trying to get back to the orientation they were support to be attending.

"I don't really know, I was just going wherever we walked as we talked." Said Aren getting an agreeing nod from Jaune

"Come on, let's go find someone to get us in the right direction." Said Ryan, while activating his Aura Vision to get a reading on where all the auras are heading.

* * *

After walking for a few minutes they finally found the auditorium. It was a giant gray coliseum shaped building with a metal, dome like skyline on to without glass to stop the elements from getting in. The giant, wooden, front doors were open wide. Upon entering they saw a the main stage look almost like the front of a European church, with four circular glass windows in the middle and all the structures were at different heights.

"Ruby, Ryan over here. I saved you guys a spot." They heard before turning to see Yang waving at them and motioning them to come over.

"Well, guess this is goodbye for now." Said Aren, while looking for a spot for him and Jaune.

"Yeah, well we gotta go. We'll see you guys after the ceremony." Ruby said as she jogged over to Yang, with Ryan in tow.

"Wait. Great now where are we supposed to find another nice quirky girl to talk to?" Jaune asked Aren, as they walked away, not noticing the red haired girl standing behind them looking at Jaune.

"So how has your first day going guys?" Yang asked in a completely innocent manner

"You mean, since you ditched us and I exploded?!" Ruby responded with a pout

"Yikes, meltdown already?" Yang asked.

"Unfortunately, it was more of a literal explosion than a figurative one Yang." Ryan answered.

"Yeah, there was fire and think some ice." Added Ruby.

"Are you guys being sarcastic?" Yang asked again.

"I wish. I tripped over some crabby girl's luggage and then she yelled at me and then I sneezed and then I exploded and then she yelled again and then I felt really, really bad and I just wanted her to stop yelling at me." Ruby summarized, failing to see Ryan motioning her to stop before…,

" **YOU**!" yelled Weiss from behind Ruby, causing her to jump into Yang's arms and say,

"Oh god, it's happening again."

"You're lucky, we weren't blown off the side of the cliff." Weiss argued with an annoyed tone in her voice.

"Oh my god, you really exploded." Yang said with a surprised expression.

"It was an accident." Ruby explained to Yang, as she got out of her arms.

Turning to Weiss she told her,

"It was an accident."

Suddenly, there was a pamphlet being waved in front of Ruby's face,

"What's this?"

"The Schnee Dust Company is not responsible for any…." She started.

Ryan having decided he didn't really want to hear any of it as he had read about the Schnee Companies policies in every single book on Dust that he read. Instead he thought more about the universe he was in.

It was pretty lovely here. There were a few negatives in this universe that he wished didn't exist but overall it was nice. The technology and way of life was different sure but really he enjoyed it. It made him realize that in essence everyone back in his universe relied too heavily on Pokémon to live. Sure there were those that used other resources like in Sunyshore City where they use Solar Power to power themselves rather than rely mainly on generators or electric Pokémon.

Though the more he thought of it, the more reasons appeared for him to trying to find a way back to his universe. He knew actions were reasonable at the time, but they were rash and could cost him dearly. Sure team Galactic would be no more after Cyrus fell and with Looker their the other commander would be in custody minutes after he when through the portal but that didn't mean there weren't other regions in his universe. Ash had yet to go to Unova and Kalos but whenever Ash when to a new region, Crime organizations seemed to decide then to strike.

Trying to forget that morbid line of thought, Ryan noticed Weiss was still talking. Figuring that the rant would probably go on till the end of the night, Ryan decided intervene.

"I'm sure we just got off on the wrong foot, Ms. Schnee. Now why don't we start over and try to be friends okay? My name is Ryan, pleasure to make your acquaintance" He said, using the edict that both his aunts taught him to use while in the presence of royalty.

"Yeah, great idea. Hmm, hello Weiss, I'm Ruby wanna hang out? We could go shopping for school supplies." Ruby said

"Yeah, and we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys like tall blond and scraggly over there." Weiss responded sarcastically, while pointing at Jaune as she mentioned the boys, causing him to perk up.

"Whoa, really?" Ruby asked expectantly, while Ryan scowled at Weiss' attitude to the young girl who was only trying to make friends.

"No." Weiss said with an angry expression on.

Before Ryan could give his two cent on her attitude, a microphones buzz caught their attention. Turning they saw Professor Ozpin standing in front of the microphone before monotonously saying,

"I'll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and acquire new skills and when you have finished you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

As he finished Professor Goodwitch came up to the microphone and said,

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

"He seemed kind of off." Yang commented as everyone started to disperse.

"It's almost like he wasn't even there." Ruby added.

Looking at the headmaster for a second, Ryan signed and thought,

 _|He could have at least pretended to care. I'm know he's probably had to repeat this every year but at least Lady Ilene delivers her annual tournament speech with enthusiasm.|_

While they were all distracted by Ozpin's speech, none of them noticed Jaune walking over towards Weiss, with a confused Aren in tow and said,

"I'm a natural blonde you know." Gaining a facepalm from Weiss, while Aren just looked down in disappointment.

* * *

As nighttime fell, everyone was getting ready to sleep for the night. Ryan walked out of the bathroom, changed for the night. His sleepwear merely consisted of a pair of black sweat pants and gray slip-on shoes. His upper body was exposed, revealing his lightly scared muscular build. After years of sparring with Lucario and Gallade, Ryan's muscles became well defined. Not to mention his constant bouts with people that have no regard for human life meant he had been at the receiving end of more than a few weak attacks and explosions.

As got back to where he and the sisters would be sleeping, he found Ruby laying on the sleeping bag writing something. Ruby's pajamas consisted of a black tank top with a pink heart with ears on the curves of the heart and teeth lining the straight lines on the heart, a pair of white sweatpants with pink, polka dots and a black sleep of mask with red, menacing eyes on it. As he sat down, Yang dropped onto her sleeping bag saying

"It's like a big Slumber party."

Yang's pajamas were a mere orange tank top with her burning heart emblem on it and a pair of black shorts.

"I don't think your father would appreciate all the boys here, Yang." Ryan said, knowing how their father only allowed him to stay in their home after both Ruby and Yang begged him, much to his embarrassment.

"I know, I do." she purred as she eyes all the boys, who were trying to show off any muscle they had.

That soon stop as Jaune suddenly walked into her field of vision wearing a light-blue onesie with bunnies on the feet.

"Yang's 'approval' aside, what are you doing Ruby?" Ryan asked truly curious of what his younger friend was doing.

"I'm writing a letter to the gang back at Signal. I promised to tell them all about Beacon and how things are going." Ruby responded cheerfully.

Ryan smile at her loyalty to her friend, reminding him of Ash and his friendship motivated actions. Remembering that he wouldn't be able to see his 'little brother' anymore, Ryan's smile faltered slightly.

"Ah, that's so cute." Yang said, only to have Ruby throw a pillow at her face and say.

"Shut up, I didn't get to take my friend with me to school, it's weird not knowing anyone here."

"What about Jaune and Aren they talked to us. That two new friends today." Ryan said, trying to better Ruby's mood.

"I'm pretty sure Weiss yelling at us scared them off so that's back to zero." Ruby countered.

"I don't know, you're pretty hard to forget, especially when you're pouting like that." Came a voice behind them.

Turning they see Aren standing in front of them, carrying his sleeping bag under his arm. Aren's pajamas consisted of a pair of green shorts and black undershirt that revealed his slightly muscular arms and exposing two x-shaped scars that seem to go through his left shoulder.

"A-Aren?" Ruby asked with a slight blush, at seeing his slightly muscular frame clearer now.

"Sup." He replied.

"What bring you here, Aren? I mean you seem to prefer Jaune's company over any else's." Ryan asked

Rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, Aren replied,

"Well… you see… I… thought it would be… uh... nice to get to know you guys better."

"You're embarrassed by the way he's dressed aren't you?" Yang asked, with a knowing grin.

"As much as I like hanging out with the guy, those pajamas aren't the most comfortable thing to be around." he responds nervously, before turning to Ruby and saying,

"Now about your problem Ruby, don't think about it as you don't have friends. Think that you just haven't met them yet. You can make friends can be anyone you meet, you just have to go up and talk to them."

As Aren finished his short speech, Ryan smiled at his friend's explanation to Ruby. He himself should take the advice, but he had grown accustomed to isolation in order to keep those around him safe as his father had with him. Yet now he realize that this universe wasn't as dependent as his own, while it still needed help from people that trained to protect it there were more people to protect it not just him and his father, _now_ other can defend themselves and protect others.

His thoughts were soon interrupted, when he noticed a light out of the corner of his eyes. Turning he saw the girl for before, only this time she had on a black yukata with white around the edges.

Turning to the group, Ryan heard Ruby said in an almost whisper like tone,

"That girl."

Yang seeing that there was some recognition in her voice asked,

"You know her?"

"Not really Yang, we only saw her after the explosion and even at that she only told us who Weiss was, insulted the Schnee Company then left." Ryan responded.

"Well, now's your chance." Yang says as she drags Ruby towards the girl, despite her protest.

Turning to Aren, Ryan asked,

"Well, you wanna go make a new friend?"

"Nah, I'm good. You?" Aren responded.

"Someone's gotta keep them from making any mistakes they might regret later." Ryan answered before getting up and speed up to catch them, just as they got to the girl.

Before Ryan could say anything Yang yelled out,

"Hellooooo!" Getting the girl full attention.

"I believe you three know each other?"

Shaking his head in disappointment, Ryan decided to lean against the wall near the girl, not close enough to make her uncomfortable, but enough to notice any changes in her aura to avoid another incident like with Weiss.

Slightly confused by the shirtless boy now leaning against the wall near her, the girl asked,

"Aren't you… the girl that exploded?"

"Uhh… yeah! My name's Ruby, But you can just call crater… uh… actually you can just call me Ruby." Ruby responded, only to notice the girl just went back to reading her book before acknowledging her answer.

Seeing her sister struggle, Yang took shot at it,

"So… what's your name?"

Signing the girl answered, "Blake."

"Well, Blake I'm Yang!" Yang responded with glee in her voice,

"Ruby's older sister! And the guy leaning on the wall is Ryan!"

At the mention of his name, Ryan turned to her and did a two fingered wave from his position on the wall, before Yang tried to continue her conversation,

"Uh... I like your bow"

"Thanks." Blake responded, as Ryan easily picked up on the annoyance in her aura.

"It goes great with your… pajamas." Yang said trying to keep the conversation going but noticing the awkwardness of it."

"Right." Blake responded clearly over the conversation.

"Nice night don't you think?" Yang asked still not wanting to drop the conversation.

"Yes. It's lovely. Almost as lovely as this book…" Blake said, hoping that they took the hint. Seeing they didn't move she continued,

"...that I will continue to read…"

Seeing the sisters still weren't taking the hint Ryan decided to intervene,

"Guys let's just go. She just want to read her book and we keep interrupting her." he said while kicked of the walk and started to try and herd them back to their sleeping spot.

"What's it about?" Ruby asked, while Ryan was trying to get Yang to get back to their sleeping area.

"Huh?" Blake asked, genuinely confused.

"You're book. Does it have a name?" Ruby continued. Looking at Blake's aura Ryan saw that she was slightly enjoying talking about her book

"Well, it's about a man with two soul, each fighting for control over his body." she said.

That stopped Ryan dead in his tracks. Had any of the girls look they would have seen his face harden for a split second before return to a neutral look.

After hearing about the Mewtwo incident and seeing Ash risk his life multiple times for his friends and the sake of the world, Ryan was always worried when he realized that every time he left the castle for an assignment, Ash was usually in the area. But his worries were never stronger than when he got possessed by the King of Pokelantis. It was one of the only times that he had requested the leave of the castle to cheer his 'little brother' on in his battle against Brandon the Pyramid King. To see his 'brother's' body in the control of such a sinister aura and know he could do anything without hurting Ash was enraging.

Shaking himself out of that thought, Ryan returned his hearing to the conversation, hearing Yang say,

"Oh yeah… that's real lovely."

Suddenly Ruby stepped forward and said in a pleasant tone,

"I love books. Yang used to read to me every night before bed. Stories of heroes and monster… they're one of the reasons I want to be a Huntress."

Smiling Blake asked,

"Why is that? Hoping you'll live happily ever after?"

"Well, I'm hoping we all will. As a girl, I wanted to be just like the heroes in the books. Someone who fought for what was right, and protected the people who couldn't protect themselves." Ruby responded, with a look that Ryan had come to know as the reason Ash made so many friends, the look of pure determination that meant that nothing would stop her from achieving her goal.

Lowering her book Blake responded,

"That's very ambitious… for a child. Unfortunately the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale."

Seeing that Ruby wasn't going to back down, Ryan smiled at her and tasseled her hair much to her annoyance before turning to Blake and saying,

"That's why we're here, Blake. To keep the world's peace and fix anything that we can along the way."

Before anything else could be said, Yang pushed Ryan aside and started hugging and praising Ruby for her ambition, lifting her in the process, which only annoyed her more causing them to start fighting.

What neither of them noticed was the position Yang put Ryan and Blake in. While pushing Ryan aside he ended up landing on top of Blake for a few seconds, before jumping up and apologizing profusely. Now the two were blushing up a storm and trying to aver each other's line of sight to not make things more awkward.

While the two level headed teens tried to retain their levels heads, neither of them noticed the now furious Weiss marching up to Ruby and Yang until she yelled,

"What in the world is going on over here!?" Stopping Yang and Ruby's fight.

"Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep!?" She continued before realization crossed her face and both Yang and she yelled,

 **"OH, NOT YOU AGAIN!"**

Seeing a perfect excuse to escape the awkward situation with Blake, Ryan hurriedly got up and started to release aura into his right hand, before placing it on Yang's shoulder. The effect was almost instant as Yang suddenly collapsed, causing Ryan to catch her and swung her arm over his shoulder, surprising the three conscious girls.

As he repositioned Yang to make her easier to move, Ruby yell,

"RYAN!"

Turning to her, he moved a finger up to his lips and shushed her before explaining,

"Relax she's fine, Ruby. I just put her to sleep that's all."

"How did you do that, exactly?" Blake asked, a little wary of him now.

Still trying to avoid eye contact with her, he responded,

"Well… by pumping enough aura into my hand I overloaded her own aura, rendering her unconscious."

 **"WHERE DID YOU LEARN SUCH A BARBARIC ATTACK!?"** Weiss yelled, causing Ruby and Ryan to shush her.

Not knowing how to answer without revealing his secret, Ryan decided the best course of action, avoid answering.

"Does it matter, Weiss? You got what you wanted, it's quiet enough for you to sleep now isn't it. Come on Ruby let's get Yang into her sleeping bag. Weiss, Blake goodnight." He said while trying to keep a calm expression on his face to not make Weiss ask more questions.

Seeing that he was already leaving, Ruby waved good bye before running over to Ryan and helping him with Yang a little. Watching them leave for a while, Blake realized that her eyes were glued to Ryan the whole time. He seemed to be respectful and well-mannered but he held a secret that had something to go with that aura trick he did. Not that she should be the one talking about keeping secrets, yet she couldn't shake the feeling of overwhelming calmness she felt when he fell on her. It was a calmness she hadn't felt since she had first met Adam and yet this was different. Ryan's calm feeling was different it held a warning of sorts. As she realized that she was still watching his retreating form caring Yang, she couldn't shake a slightly feeling of jealousy for the unconscious blond how was covered in that warming feeling despite not know it.

It was at that moment, Blake noticed that she was acting possessive of a guy she had only just met. Blushing at her school girl crush like attitude she quickly picked up her light and blew it out. Sneaking a look over at him she was shocked to see his eyes glowing with a blue color around them as he walked through the dark over to what she assumed was his sleeping bag.

 _|Just what are you hiding? And what is caused that glow in your eyes?|_ She asked herself before closing her eyes and slid into sleep's embrace. Completely unaware of to second pair of eyes that were next to where Ryan was sitting, staring back at her with a calculated gaze.

* * *

 **That's a wrap{Get it?} (-_-) . Anyways, feedback is much appreciated as long as you don't curse at me.**


	4. The rise of ROAM

**The fourth chapter revised here it is.**

 ** _|_|_** **\- thoughts**

 **[I own nothing but my OC]**

* * *

As morning came, Aren started to wake. Rising, it became clear to him that mostly everyone were still asleep. Seeing that, he got up to stretch.

As he did, he noticed an energetic orange haired girl looming over both an extremely long, black haired boy with a streak of magenta in it and short brown hair boy, her turquoise eyes shifting for one to the other as if checking with of them would wake up first.

The girl wore a black collared vest, with a white sleeveless top under it, which strangely had a small heart shaped hole on her chest. Above the vest she wore some metal armor that went from her shoulders and around her waist. She wore a pink skirt with a light gray bow tied on the back. On her hands she had a pair of fingerless gloves that matched the skirts color. On her feet she wore white high tops with pink laces that folded near the top.

The black haired boy, despite sleeping, wore seemed to be wearing a dark green, long-sleeve, collared tailcoat with diagonal buttons and pink cuffs. The tail coat had black and gold trim going from the right side of his torso up to the collar. Underneath, he seemed to be wearing a tight, black, long-sleeved shirt. On his legs he wore a pair of light tan pants with black shoes on his feet.

The final boy was similar as the black haired boy, in that he seemed to be wearing his normal outfit rather than pajamas. He wore a simple light blue t-shirt with some black combat pants on and a pair of black military boots. Yet what caught Aren's attention was the fact that his right arm seemed to be a lighter color than the rest of his toasted skin tone.

Not wanting to get involved, he looked over at his company and turned a slight tint of red. To his right, Ruby slept curled up cutely in her sleeping bag making her look more youthful than she was. Next to her, Yang laid sprawled out with the sleeping bag just barely covered one her legs and her long hair looked like a tangled mess. Looked to his left, he noticed the only other guy in their small group was missing.

 _|Hmm, where could Ryan have gone?|_ He thought, as he got up to go shower and get ready for the initiation to come in the following hours.

As he reached the bathroom, he quickly scanned the bathroom to see if anyone else was in there. Seeing that he was alone he ready the shower, but his thoughts went back to a certain black and red haired girl.

 _|Ruby looked so cute curled up like that.|_ he thought, before shaking his head.

 _|No. She shouldn't even bothering with someone like me.|_ he berated as he stepped into the shower revealing a long, gray jackal tail protruding from his tailbone,

 _|An idiot that's too much a coward to show his true self.|_

* * *

The sound of short, steady breaths resonated through the hall leading into the auditorium, as Ryan jogged in. Having trained to be at his best for seven years, Ryan grew accustomed to waking up early, a fact that scared Ruby half to death the morning after they meet.

As he made it to the group he saw that Ruby was groggily getting up, Aren seemed to be missing and Yang was starting to stir a little. Remembering how he put her to sleep last night, Ryan decided to take a shower before meeting up with the two.

After showering and getting ready, Ryan headed towards the lockers where they had left their weapons the night before were. As soon as he got there, he saw Ruby and Yang getting their thing in order, while a colorful trio walked by with the girl skipping behind the two boys.

As they walked past, Ryan asked,

"What's up with them?"

Before he could react, Yang grabbed him by the dress shirt and tried to hold him in the air, only to fail as he was slightly taller than her.

"Ryan~." She said in a sing-songy voice,

"Mind telling me why I woke up with a headache and the last thing I remember being **you** putting **your** hand on my shoulder?" Pulling him towards her slightly so she can look him in the eyes.

"Well, while you and Weiss started to argue after she came to quiet us down, I got tired and decided to end the argument before going to sleep." He explained.

Yang studied him for a few seconds before letting him go and saying,

"Well at least you have enough guts to tell me the truth,"

Helping him straighten the wrinkles on his dress shirt, she whispered into his ear,

"Do it again and you won't be able to use that hand ever again." She threatened with a smile.

Flinching at the threat posed, Ryan responded,

"Yes ma'am,"

Feeling satisfied with Ryan answer, Yang turned to a confused looking Ruby and said,

"So, you seem awfully chipper this morning?" Doing a complete 180 with her attitude in seconds.

Ruby, not in the least bit confused by her attitude change, giggled and responded,

"Yup, no more awkward small talk or getting to know you stuff. Today I get to let my sweetheart do the talking." Hugging _Crescent Rose_ tightly to her chest.

"Well remember Ruby, you're not the only one going through initiation. If you want to grow up you're gonna have to meet new people and learn to work together." Yang said, reminding Ryan of how he almost got himself killed so many time in his early days of being an Aura Guardian for thinking that he was invincible with his aura.

"Ugh, you sound just like dad. First of all, what does meeting people have to do with fighting? And secondly, I don't need people to help me grow up. I drink milk." Ruby retorted, crossing her arms and turning away from them as she mentioned the milk.

"But, what about when we form teams?" Ryan asked.

"I don't know. I'll just be one of you guy's teams or something?" Ruby shyly responded.

"Maybe you should try being on someone else's team?" Yang responded as she played with her hair, getting a look of anger from Ruby and a confused look from Ryan, who knew that Yang was as protective of Ruby as he was of Ash.

"My, dear sister Yang, are you implying that you do not wish to be on the same team as me?" Ruby asked while glaring at Yang.

"What, no, of course I do. It's just I thought, I don't know, maybe it would help you break out of you shell?" Yang responded hastily.

"WHAT!" Ruby yelled "I don't need to break out of my shell that's absolutely ridiculous."

"Calm down, Ruby you're making a scene." Ryan intervened,

"I agree with Yang though. You shouldn't rely only on people you've known the longest. You need to make new friends too."

"Not you too. Why do you both want to abandon me?" Ruby asked with a hurt expression adorning her face, before she looked down in defeat.

"Ruby." Ryan said quietly, causing her to look up at him.

"We aren't abandoning you Ruby, were making sure that you'll always have someone to be by your side especially if we can't be there for you"

"But I can take care of myself. I'm not a baby anymore!" Ruby said slightly anger at being looked down on.

"I never said you can't take care of yourself, Ruby. But experience has taught me that without someone to back you up, your weaknesses can be easily exploited."

"But, I don't have weaknesses!" Ruby retorted.

"Ruby…" Yang started gloomily, only to be interrupted by a loud grunt and someone saying,

"I'm sorry."

Turning, they saw Weiss with her hands on her hips facing a red headed girl and a dirty blond haired boy, while Aren was laughing like crazy at Jaune, who was held to a locker by a red and bronze spear.

The redhead had waist-length hair held together in a ponytail and had a bronze circlet headpiece that looped just above her ear and under her bangs. Hanging of the headpiece, on thin chains, were two small emerald teardrops on either side of her head, which drew more attention to her livid-green eyes. She wore a corset style, bronze chest piece, a red miniskirt and brown cut-off sleeves on both arms, with a bronze bracer adorning her left forearm and a similarly colored bracelet on her left tricep. On her hip she wore a red ankle-length drapery that appears to be wrapped around her skirt and on her legs she wore bronze greaves going from her upper thighs to her ankles and slide into her brown, calf high boots. Around the drapery she also wore a brown thin belt that had two pouches on her left hip and a small bronze circle with the image of a spear in it that Ryan could only assume to be her symbol. Seeing the symbol and the color scheme behind her outfit, Ryan took a shot in the dark and assumed it was her spear holding Jaune on the locker

The dirty blond boy had long, messy slightly curly hair that reached the end of his neck and draped over his eyes slightly, only leaving room to see his eyes. He wore a black, ankle length military coat that was only closed by two buttons in the center revealing some of his muscular chest under his charcoal black v neck. The rest of the coat opened outwards, revealing a pair of loose, black jeans and black combat boots with straps on them. The coat itself had multiple shredded sections that looked like tailcoats, that started at his knee length and had a blood red coloring on the inside, but what stood out to Ryan were the two hilts sticking out of his right hip. On his right hip, were two black daito with a black handle and red diamond like designs, going from the guard to the end of the sword. The guards were revolver-like, much like Weiss'.

Before anyone could ask what happened, Professor Goodwitch's voice came on through the intercoms,

"Would all first-year students, please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation. Again, would all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately."

As the announcement came to an end, the trio saw Weiss walking away with the two others following. As she came to Jaune, the girl reached for her spear, before it surprisingly flew out of his hood, causing him to fall.

With spear in hand, she said,

"It was nice meeting you." Before she hurried after Weiss and the boy, leaving an almost depressed looking Jaune on the floor before he signed out a,

"Likewise."

"Having some trouble their lady-killer?" Yang asked as they walked over to the duo, with Ryan extending a hand Jaune.

"I don't understand. My dad said all women look for is confidence. Where did I go wrong?" Jaune asked, as he go to his feet.

Signing, Aren responded

"Jaune, you saw how she was yesterday. What made you think that it was a good idea?"

"Oh? Then why didn't you stop him?" Yang asked.

Rubbing the back of his head embarrassedly, Aren responded.

"I, kind of, wanted to see how far he would go, before she got annoyed. In my defense I didn't expect Pyrrha to intervene."

The moment he said that the sisters started to laugh whole heartedly, while Ryan chucked lightly. Jaune for his part tried to glare at them but its effect failed as he almost fell on a knee form having been quickly shot into a locker.

Seeing that he was a little weak on his feet, Ryan swung Jaune's arm over his shoulder and said,

"Come on Brock. Let's go" Confusing the blond.

* * *

Standing in a straight line, all the first-years stood on stone platforms with the school's insignia on them. In front of them were Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch, both facing the students and their backs turn to a forest, which reminded Ryan of Eterna Forest in Sinnoh. To his right stood Yang with Aren to his left. Next to Yang, was Ruby nervously playing with her hands, who stood next to a completely stiffened Jaune.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors and today your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Said Professor Ozpin.

Stepping forward Professor Goodwitch said,

"Now I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates. Today."

Hearing this, Ryan started heard Ruby grumble, but it ended quickly as Professor Ozpin spoke up,

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Causing Ruby to complain louder.

"That being said, the first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years." Ozpin finished, getting a loud yell of protest from Ruby and the colorful girl from earlier to turn to one of the boys and say,

"See. I told you."

Ignoring the outbursts, Ozpin continued,

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path. Or you will die. You will monitored for and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

"Yeah, uh sir…" Jaune started, before Ozpin interrupted him,

"Good. Now take your positions."

As everyone got ready, Ryan got into a low squat and started using his Aura Vision to try and get a layout of the forest. Looking over at Aren, he saw him pull up his scarf and hood. Yang looked like she was ready for a fight before putting on a pair of aviators. Ruby had her hand ready to reach for _Crescent Rose_ in a moment's notice. Looking at Jaune, Ryan noticed he was still trying to get information out of Ozpin.

Before he could try and listen in on the conversation between the two, Ryan heard a repeating mechanical sound to his right. Looking over, Ryan instantly got out of Aura Vision to check if he was seeing correctly. Every student to his right was suddenly flying through the air with the guy next to Aren being the next in line. As it came down to Aren's turn, Ryan saw the kid decided to add some extra 'spring' to his jump and jumped as soon as the mechanism launched him causing him to fly farther than does before him. Too distracted by Aren's stunt, Ryan was caught off guard when he was shot into the air.

As he flew through the air, Ryan started to wildly think of a landing strategy. Seeing that he was starting to descend, he decided to take Ozpin's advice and ensure that he wasn't attacked when he landed. Surrounding himself in aura, he braced himself as he approached a tree. As soon as he connected with center of the tree, it exploded in tiny fragments. The top half, being hit by the air from his descend, topple after him.

The moment he hit the ground, he rolled forward getting just out of the topping tree's way. Turning around he was that his original landing spot now had a small crater in it. Thinking that that would be enough to keep any Grimm away from him for the time being, he expanded his aura and started to search for anybody that he could partner up with. Seeing that were two slightly familiar auras in the area, one walking toward a small clearing while the other was standing a few feet away kicking up some dirt, Ryan started to jog over to the clearing to meet up with them.

As he neared the clearing, Ryan started hear grunts coming from his destination. As soon as he reached the clearing, he saw a rather amusing sight. Jaune, who once again caught in the redhead's spear only this time he was about 15 feet in the air, was waving at an annoyed Weiss.

Hearing the sound of the bushes being pushed aside, Weiss turned to Ryan and started for a moment before saying,

"You seem to be more capable than him. Would you like to be my partner?"

Not liking her way of choosing who her partner would be, Ryan remembered sensing another aura in the area. Activating Aura vision, Ryan saw small red rose petals trailing behind Weiss' icicle like aura.

Knowing whose aura created that effect, Ryan asked,

"Weiss, did you come across Ruby on the way here?"

Trying not to return to Ruby, Weiss calmly responded,

"No."

"Really? Then how come her aura seems to be following you?" Ryan asked with a completely innocent look on his face.

Huffing, Weiss turned around and started walking back from whence she came. Ryan, knowing that she would lead him to one of his friend, started to follow her, forgetting about Jaune's predicament. As they reached the clearing, where he saw the aura he now knew to be Ruby's was, Weiss instantly grabbed Ruby's hood and started to drag her along telling her,

"By no means, does this make us friends."

Cheerfully Ruby half yelled,

"You can back."

"Only because this dunce knew that we had already teamed up." Weiss said, pointing at her 'shadow'.

Noticing that Ryan was with them, Ruby instantly perked up even more knowing that one of her friends was now with her, before she waved at him childishly. Ryan, upon seeing Ruby wave at him, he chucked lightly before he waved back.

As they got farther though, Ryan heard Jaune yell out,

"WAIT! COME BACK! WHO'S GONNA GET ME DOWN FROM HERE!"

Smacking his head in frustration, Ryan mentally berated himself for forgetting about Jaune. Just as he was about to turn around to help him, he heard a girl ask,

"JAUNE?"

Seeing Jaune's aura lighten up at the voice below, Ryan continued to follow the two colored themed girls, who were currently starting a conversation.

"What's the hurry?" Ruby asked, after getting out of Weiss grip.

"I will not let my mission be delayed because you two are too slow." Weiss retorted, stomping ahead to the pair.

"I swear if I get a bad grade on because of both of your-" Weiss started only to be interrupted by Ruby suddenly appearing in front of her.

"What the-"

"I'm not slow see" Ruby added. "You don't have to worry about me!" She continued with a glee.

"When did-" Weiss started, before Ruby continued,

"Weiss just because I don't know how to deal with people, doesn't mean I don't know how to deal with monsters. You're about to see a whole different side of me today Weiss. And after it's all over you're gonna be like 'Wow that Ruby girl is really, really cool.' And I wanna be your friend."

As she finished Ruby used her semblance and shot forward into the forest, leaving Weiss and Ryan on their own. Annoyed Weiss said,

"You may be fast, but you still excel at wasting time."

Turning to Ryan, with the hope he had an idea of where she was heading, she received a shrug in response. Hearing a sudden sound they both looked in the direction that Ruby speed of to.

Curious Ryan asked,

"Ruby?" Only to get no response.

Slightly worried, Weiss stepped forward a little and asked the same question, this time they both heard a loud growl behind them. Activation his aura vision, Ryan saw no auras in the area, despite the growl turning into multiple snarls all around them. On instinct, Ryan got closer to Weiss and reached for his blade. Hearing a loud snarl behind them, both the teens turned and saw a spine chilling creature.

Before them stood a bipedal creature, that reminded Ryan of a Zoroark in shape but it's flowy red and black mane was replaced by a completely visible spine and bone spikes coming out of its forearms, knees and behind its elbows. On its head was a smoother version of a Marowak's skull, with red lines connecting from its snout to it glowing red eyes and continuing onto the lowest point on the back of the skull. Adding on to it terrifying image, were its fangs and large claws.

Remembering his reading from earlier in the week, Ryan knew that this creature as a Beowolf and judging by the continuous snarls around them, it was merely leading its pack into battle. Seeing that they were getting surrounded fast, Ryan looked at Weiss and said,

"You ready to fight for that grade, Weiss." Getting a slight nod in response, they got into their stances with their backs to each other and waited for the first strike.

* * *

"Damn. I think I over did it with that jump. And now I lost too." Aren said, berating himself even more quietly.

After flying through the sky for a few minutes, Aren used semblance to slow himself down. That semblance being to manipulate the wind to push him across any surface letting his glide.

But now, he had been walking for over about an hour and was getting tired of the endless sea of trees. Just as he was about to rest he heard a faint sound in the distance. Listening closely he faintly heard,

"Is anyone out there?"

Smiling at his luck to find a partner this far into the forest he jogged over to the voice. As he got closer he heard,

"Ruby? Is that you?" before hearing a loud roar followed by gunshots.

Now knowing that the person knew Ruby and sounded female, he guess that it was probably Yang. With this in mind, he started sprinting to Yang's location to help her with whatever it was that roar.

As he ran, he hear the sound of something running towards him. Seeing a black mass coming at him out of the corner of his eye, he waited till it lunged at him to dodge. Using the momentum from his sprint, he slide under the mass. As soon as he got a few feet away from it, he spun around and stopped, reached his hand for his holstered weapons.

With the black mass was in front of him, he finally got a good look at it. It looked like a big bear with spikes coming out of its back and arms, with similar spikes coming out of its knees and shoulders. Its upper face was replaced with a skull and had a dot in the center of its head with a circle around it that arc to its blood red eyes. The lines then swirled around his eyes like vortexes and move towards some small protrusions near the back of the skull. The main dangers with this creature seemed to be it strength and claws.

Aren tensed, realizing that the beast before him was an Ursa. Putting out his sword he held it in a reverse grip and the instantly aimed the gun at the Grimm. Slowly, the Ursa rose to its hind legs towering over Aren in a challenging manner, causing him to tighten his grip on his sword.

Out of nowhere the sound of a loud yell resonated from behind the Ursa, before a blue and black blur threw the Ursa's legs out for under it and shoot past Aren. Taking advantage of the fallen Grimm, Aren jumped upwards and plunged the blade deep into the Ursa's chest as they both fell. Along the way, Aren also unloaded a clip into the Ursa's mouth.

Turning, he saw the last thing he expected. The brown haired teen for the morning now had his left shoulder covered in a double plating paldron. To add to the image he was currently holding a Gladius to hold back the slumped over body of another Ursa with the tip of a blade coming out of its back.

Pushing back the Grimm slid off the blade a swift motion.

As it fell the teen flipped the blade into a reverse grip much like his own and sheathed the blade to his left side.

Noticing he was being watched, the boy looked at Aren before holding out his left hand and saying,

"Name's Marcus. Marcus Baldovino."

"Aren. Thanks for the save. Partner." Aren responded, shaking Marcus' hand.

"Any time. I saw you were gonna get ambushed and wasn't about to let the first person I saw in here get picked off that easily." Marcus explained.

Before they could continue their conversation, they both heard a snapping sound and turned to see a bigger Ursa that the last two standing before them. Holding his sword in front of him, Aren got ready to strike while Marcus dropped into a low stance.

As they were both about to charge, they heard,

"You… **YOU MONSTER**!" Followed by the sound of an explosion and multiple shotgun shots rang through the air before a flaming Ursa came flying from the direction of the explosion, taking the Ursa they were going to fight with it. As the Ursas came to a stop, the large tree that stopped them, collapsed onto the two ending the threat.

Surprised by the sudden event, both boys looked through the clearing of fallen trees and saw an enraged Yang challenging another Ursa, who appeared to no care that it comrade was just brutally killed by its challenger.

Before either of the boys could make a move to help her, the sound of metal tearing into flesh came from behind the Ursa before it fell forwards. As the Grimm hit the floor, Blake appeared holding a black ribbon attached to the end of a handgun with a long blade coming out the back of it. Pulling on the ribbon, the gun returned to Blake's hand before she sheathed it and smirked at Yang.

Trying to act unaffected by Blake's entrance, Yang said,

"I could have taken him."

Suddenly Marcus burst out in laughter, startling the two girls and Aren in the process. Realizing that he was the center of attention, Marcus composed himself enough to explain his outburst.

"Sorry. It's just that, you were in an enraged mode a few minutes ago and changed it in seconds, just so you could be cocky." he said with a light smile on his face.

Smiling at his partner's comment, Aren said,

"Thanks for that by the way. Saved us the hassle of having to kill another Ursa."

Slightly embarrassed, Yang rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

Halfheartedly rolling her eyes at her partner's actions, Blake said,

"We should started heading to the temple." getting a nod from everyone as they moved out.

* * *

Catching Weiss as she got pushed back while trying the kill one of the Beowolves, Ryan took a shot at it and ran forward. Holding his sword low to the ground, he waited till his target lashed out at him. As it slash at him, he used his blade to block the strike before spinning into the Beowolf's inner defenses. Seeing another slash coming at him, ducked under it and came up stabbing his blade right under its ribcage. Using more of his strength, he force the blade deeper into the Grimm, puncturing it's lungs before giving it a twist, ending its existence. Quickly pulling out his blade, he used it to block another Beowolves attack and punched it with an aura infused fist to give himself some breathing room.

Smelling something burn he turned to see one of the nearby trees on fire and a trail of fire leading to an arguing Ruby and Weiss. Before he could do anything, he saw a sharp movement coming from his left. Running in reflexes, Ryan raised his blade in time to block the strike from one of the bigger Beowolves only to get knocked back by the force. Righting himself in the air, he flipped his blade into a reverse grip and stabbed it into the ground skidding to a stop in the middle of the girl, both ready to continue fighting the Beowolves. Before either side could make their move, a blazing tree fell to Ruby's left causing the fire to spread.

Seeing the dangers of continuing the fight, Ryan said,

"We gotta go."

As he sheathed his blade, he saw that Ruby was still in a crouching position with _Crescent Rose_ poised to strike. Grabbing her wrist, he yelled,

"NOW!"

Just they started to run, Ryan was side tackled and was had to hold the Beowolf back with his hands. Seeing him in trouble, Ruby reached for _Crescent Rose_ only for Ryan to yell,

"NO! Weiss take Ruby and get to the temple. I'll catch up."

Before she could protest, Weiss grabbed her wrist and started to run as fast as she could. Once they were gone, Ryan kicked the Beowolf off and jumped towards it. As he was in the air he charged an aura sphere in him hand and plunged it into the Grimm, killing it. Getting up, he saw that the fire was spreading quickly, but some Beowolves decided to try and get a quick meal before they left.

The five remaining Beowolves, started to surround him in an attempt to try and catch him off guard. Seeing this, Ryan sighed and reached into his satchel. Out of his courier bag he pull out a black sphere with aqua blue lines swirling around it. Throwing it up, the sphere popped open in the air and released a mist of water, quenching the flames.

Thinking that the water would distract him, one Beowolf lunged at him, dragging its clawed hand on the ground to tear into him. Just as it was about to slice into him, he sidestepped the slash and rammed his shoulder into its stomach, causing it to hunch forward. Using the time he had, Ryan exerted his body and lifted the Beowolf up before slamming it into the ground, causing some of the bones on its back to break. With it arching its back in pain, Ryan created two aura spheres and shot them at the two nearest Beowolves, stunning them, while he unsheathed his blade and stab it through the downed Beowolf's head, ending its pain.

Seeing that he was distracted, the other two Beowolves jumped at him from behind their clawed hands raised for the kill. Before they could land a hit, the two were suddenly bisected. Hearing the sound of the two fallen Grimm, Ryan turned and saw the blonde boy from before, with his blades pointing outwards.

Turning, the boy rushed to one of the remaining Beowolves and began his assault. He used one of his daitos to parry his target's slash, before spinning around and slashed its knees with his other blade. As the Beowolf fell to its knees, he stabbed one of the blades into its chest, while block its desperate counter-attacks with the other blade. Quickly pulling his blade out of the Beowolf, he placed both blade on either side of the Grimm's head before sliding them across its jugular, ending it instantly.

Seeing its partner life end before its own eyes, the remaining Beowolf went in to try and kill the swordsman. Noticing this, the black clad boy readied his blades to kill it quickly, only for the Beowolf to get thrown backwards by an aura sphere piercing it. As it hit the floor Ryan stabbed his own blade into the Grimm's chest.

Looking over at the surprised boy, Ryan said,

"Sorry about that, but seeing as you had already killed three of them to save me, I figured I'd return the favor. Name's Ryan Ketchum."

Sheathing his weapons, the boy responded,

"Oscar Kurokawa. It's fine, but how did you do that? I've seen aura tricks before but that's the first time if seen that one."

Sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, Ryan chuckled slightly before remembering their previous objective and promise to Ruby, Ryan said,

"We should get going to the temple, I'll tell you on the way."

"Fine, but I expect a full explanation."

As they both started heading away from the slightly blazing clearing, a pair of giant red eyes appeared from the trees near the blaze, followed by an ominous clicking sound.

* * *

Walking out of the forest, the group of four reached a small cliff side that overlooked some ruins. The stone ruins looked to have been beaten severely by Mother Nature as vines draped of some parts of the damaged circle that was held up by pillars. In the middle were pedestals in an almost completely circular order.

Turning to the group, Yang asked,

"Think this is it?" Getting a chuckle from Marcus while Aren and Blake gave a deadpan expression.

As the go to the temple, they noticed that the pedestals had some chess pieces on them. Confused Marcus asked,

"Chess pieces?"

"Some of them are missing. Looks like weren't the first ones here." Yang commented.

"I guess we should pick one." Blake said, as she looked at the remaining chess pieces.

"Let's look for one too, big guy." Aren said, whilst looking for a reasonable chess piece for him and his partner.

Not long after they started their search, Yang grabbed a white knight and asked Blake,

"How about a cute little pony?"

"Sure" Blake said with a playful eye roll.

Seeing the two girls get their piece, Marcus looked at a piece before grabbing it and saying,

"Hey Aren. Think fast."

As Aren caught the piece, he looked it over and asked,

"The white Pawn? Why this one?"

"Can't win the game with a few pawns making a sacrifice right? Plus I doubt they mean anything, so why not take it." Marcus answered.

"Can't argue with you there." Aren replied, before they all meant in the center of the 'temple'.

"Well, that wasn't so hard." Yang said cheerfully.

"The place isn't exactly hidden, Yang" Aren responded, motioning to the fact the 'temple' was in the middle of a huge clearing.

Suddenly, the sound of a girlish scream pierced the air. Turning in the direction of the scream, Yang said,

"Some girls in trouble."

"She's got strong set of lung then." Marcus added.

Rather than commenting on the scream Aren focused on a faint sound he couldn't pinpoint. As he searched around their surroundings the short teen noticing that Blake was rather quiet during the exchange. Turning towards her, he saw the black themes girl looking up.

Confused by this his eyes instantly locked onto the cause for the faint noise.

Above them was Ruby, plummeting straight towards them.

Thinking fast, Aren jumped up before activating his semblance, pushing himself high enough to catch her in a bridal position. Hearing another scream coming from his right side, Aren turned and saw Jaune flying at him.

Quickly reactivating his semblance, Aren kicked his leg to the side which gave him a small boost to the left avoiding the approaching Jaune and causing the blond to collide with a tree behind them. As Aren landed, Ruby clinging to his hoodie and shirt with swirls on her eyes.

Blake, slightly surprised by the teen's reflexes, looked at Yang and asked,

"Did your sister just fall from the sky?"

"I-" was Yang's answer, before suddenly an Ursa came flailing out of the forest. As it reached the edge of the clearing, a pink explosion occurred followed by a sudden,

"YYYYYYYEEEEEE-HHHHHAAAAA!"

Hearing the voice, Marcus chuckled and said,

"Only she would get that idea."

As the Ursa collapsed, the orange haired girl that was with Marcus earlier fell off and said,

"Aw, it's broken."

As she zoomed off of the Ursa's back, Marcus' other friend came out of the forest.

Wheezing and trying to catch his breath, the boy managed to say,

"Nora. Please… don't ever do that again."

Hearing no response the boy looked up and realized that Nora has suddenly disappeared. Nora was already at the 'temple', looking at the white rook chess pieces before picking it up and singing,

"I'm queen of the castle. I'm queen of the castle."

"Nora! Ren!" Marcus shouted in glee, having his two friends with him.

"Marcus!" Nora shouted back, as she ran up to him and 'booped' his nose, before starting a conversation with him about sloths.

"Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?" Aren asked confused by the event that occurred before them.

"I-" Yang started only too interrupted again, this time by a screeching sound. Looking in the direction of the screech it turned out to be the redhead from before being chased by a giant black and white scorpion. The body was covered in heavily armored plates that lead to a yellow, glowing stinger. Its multiple eyes were surrounded by curving lines, as were its pincers.

Dodging the Deathstalker's pincer strikes, she continued to run as she yell,

"JAUNE!"

Hanging upside down from a tree, Jaune responded with,

"Pyrrha!"

Finally getting out of her dizzy state, Ruby realized she was in someone's arms. Looking up she saw a confused looking Aren still trying to follow the events that just played out before them. Soon she was blushing up a storm in realization, as she was still clinging to his shirt and hoodie.

Trying to calm herself down she asked,

"Aren?"

"Hm? Oh hey Ruby. How's your day been?" He asked while looking down at her with a small smile.

"Uh… good? Your?" Ruby responded in confusion, not knowing how to respond with him still holding her in his arms.

"Can't really complain since I signed up to do thing like this. Just wish Ozpin would have given us a bigger heads up." Aren responded with shrugging, an act that unintentionally pulling closer to him.

Feeling him pull her closer Ruby couldn't hold down her blush. Not only was her friend having a conversation with her while she was in his arms, something she'd never done with any of her old friends or anyone for that matter, but he didn't seem to care either.

"Um… Aren?" Ruby asked shyly.

"Yeah?" he responded before noticing how close her face was to him.

Instantly his face also light up as he slowly placed her onto her feet, while apologizing quickly.

"It… it's okay." Ruby responded while looking down shyly.

Looking over at the two younger teens, Yang finally realized Ruby was on her feet. Instantly she started to run over to them while shouting

"Ruby!"

Seeing her sister, Ruby shot her hands up in the air and shouted back

"Yang!"

Just the two were about to hug, Nora, having got out of her discussion with Marcus, shouted out,

"Nora!"

Marcus, catching up with Nora, asked,

"Uh, did she just run here with a Deathstalker following her?"

Yang, having had enough of the craziness that just happened, exploded into flames and yelled,

"I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again?"

As she took deep breaths to call herself, Ruby hit her shoulder getting her attention before pointing up and saying,

"Um, Yang?"

Looking up, they all saw Weiss hanging of the talons of a giant black bird. The bird was pitch black like most Grimm expect for its white bone mask.

As she hung of the bird with one arm, she yelled,

"HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME?" She yelled, directly at Ruby.

"I said jump." Ruby halfheartedly answered.

"She's gonna fall." Blake uncaringly said.

"She'll be fine" Ruby responded.

"She's falling." Ren said monotonically.

Jaune, having finally untangled his leg from the tree, saw Weiss fall and was ready to jump when suddenly a black and red blur shot past him.

Just as Weiss reached the trees level, she felt something grab her waist and then felt a thud as she and her savior reached the ground. Looking up, she saw that Oscar was the one that saved her. Realizing that she was hanging under his arm, her pale face burned red as she remembered her dress wasn't exactly long.

Looking down at Weiss' red face, Oscar smirks down at her and said,

"Relax Weiss, I made sure my coat was covering you."

True to his words, she was in fact covered. Trying to get over her embarrassment, she realized she was still under his muscular arm. Getting her bearings in order, she put on her scowled and yelled,

"Will you put me down, you oaf?"

"Sure thing, ice queen." he answered shrug, before gently placing her back on the ground.

Jaune, having lost his balance when Oscar shot past him, fell off the tree only to land into Ryan's arms.

"Just dropping in?" Ryan jokingly asked, before placing the blond down and running towards to group, Jaune on his six.

Just as the teens meet in the center, the redhead was throw over to them, landing at their feet. Seeing his friend get knock out like that, Oscar ran to her and he, along with Jaune, started to check on her.

"Great! The gang's all here now we can die together." Yang jokingly said.

"Not if I can help it!" Ruby said, as she ran at the Deathstalker.

"Ruby, wait!" Yang yelled.

Ruby, removing _Crescent Rose_ from her back, shot a round behind her giving her a speed boost as she held the scythe above her head ready to slash downwards on the Deathstalker, only for it to smack her aside with its claw.

Slowly getting off the ground, Ruby said,

"Don- don't worry. It totally fine."

Hearing some noise behind her, Ruby turned to see the Deathstalker behind them. Shoot at its face, she hurriedly shifted her weapon back to its compact mode before she started running back to the group, the two Grimm trailing her.

Yang, seeing the Grimm following her sister, started running towards her sister with Ryan by her side. As they ran, Yang yelled out,

"Ruby!"

As they made it halfway through the clearing, Ryan say that the Nevermore gaining on Ruby front above, causing him to tense. Suddenly the bird stopped midair and reared its wings back before shooting feathers forward, in a move that reminded Ryan of a pin missile, at all of them. Knowing the damage the move normal caused, Ryan grabbed Yang by her shoulder and pulled her back, causing her to fall from the momentum. Before she could protest, Ryan threw up an aura shield in front of them, stopping a feather that would have impaled them.

Gripping the shield, he formed a condensed Aura Sphere before firing it at the Nevermore to keep it away, while Yang begged Ruby to get out of their as she struggled to get her cloak free from a feather that caught it.

Struggling to get the cloak loose, Ruby hear the horrid sound of pincers clapping behind her. Looking up she saw the Deathstalker in front of her slowly rearing its stinger into the air. Knowing that she wouldn't get the feather out on time, Ruby held her arms in front of her face.

Suddenly a gust of wind appeared, followed by the sound of a mechanized shift. Looking up, Ruby saw Aren in front of her with his sword facing the Deathstalker head on.

Frightened for her friend's safety, Ruby shouted,

"Aren!"

As the stinger came closer, Aren tightened his grip on the blade and held it before him at an angle to try and redirect the attack.

Before the attack could connect, a giant wall of ice encased the stinger inches away from his blade.

Looking to Ruby to see if she was the one had saved them, he heard a voice say,

"You are **so** childish."

Turning to the sound of the voice, Aren saw Weiss a few feet away from them with her rapier imbedded in the ground. Behind him, he heard Ruby said,

"Weiss?" Surprised that the heiress actually cared enough to save not only her but Aren as well.

"And dimwitted and hyperactive and don't even get me started on your fighting style. And I suppose I can be a bit… difficult … but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together. So if **you** quit trying to show off… I'll be… nicer." She finished, completely ignoring Aren's presence and focusing on Ruby.

"I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this." Ruby said.

"You're fine." Weiss said, before finally looking at Aren and saying,

"Thank you for coming to Ruby's aid."

As she finished with Aren, she walked back towards the group as if nothing happened.

As Aren turned to help Ruby up, he heard her whisper,

"Normal knees."

Finally up, the two looked behind the ice wall and say the Deathstalker struggling to break free. Turning around, the two found both Yang and Marcus running at them, before were both pulled into a hug by their sibling/partner.

Yang hugging Ruby said,

"I'm so happy you're okay."

"You're crazy kid. Almost getting killed for your girlfriend." Marcus said, much to Aren and Ruby's embarrassments.

Just as Yang was about to join in on the teasing, the Nevermore roared above them causing them to run back to the group.

Reaching the group, Jaune pointed upwards and said,

"Guys, that thing's circling back. What are we going to do?"

"Look, there's no sense in dilly dallying. Our objective is right in front of us." Weiss said, looking at the chess pieces in the 'temple'.

"She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and get back to the cliffs." Ruby said, gaining a smile from Weiss.

"There's no point in fighting these things, so let's go before the Deathstalker breaks free." Oscar added.

"Run and live. That's an idea I can get behind." Jaune said, as he, Ruby and Ryan grabbed a chess piece each.

"Time we left." Ren said, seeing that the Deathstalker was creating cracks in its icy prison.

"Right let's go." Ruby said as she led the group back to the cliffs.

Watching her sister, not only break out of her shell, but actually led a group that she had just meet caused Yang to stand and smile at her.

Seeing Yang stand there unmoved, Blake and Ryan stop by her.

"What is it?" Blake asked, wondering about her partner's behavior.

"Nothing." Yang replied, before running ahead of the two.

Turning to Ryan for help, she saw him look at Ruby with the same smile before running to catch up to Yang, causing the jealous feeling to return in her.

As he catch up to Yang, Ryan asked,

"It's a wonderful feeling to see her as a natural leader like that, isn't it?"

"Yeah." Yang answered, with glee.

* * *

As they reached a clearing full of stone ruins, the Nevermore caught up to them, forcing them to take cover behind ruins as it perched itself on a 'castle' like structure right below one of the cliffs.

As they tried to find a way around it, Yang said,

"Well that's great."

The moment she said that, the Deathstalker came crashing through the forest besides them, prompting Oscar to glare at her.

"Ah man, run!" Jaune yelled, as he and Pyrrha ran from their cover, quickly followed by everyone else.

Seeing them leave their cover, the Nevermore flew off its perch and started to pull its wings back.

Looking at Nora, Ren yelled,

"NORA! DISTRACT IT!"

Hearing her orders, Nora ran to the middle of the clearing. Dodging the feathers, she pulled out a gray and pink grenade launcher. As she opened fire on the Grimm, the surrounding explosions caused the Nevermore to retreat.

Just as Marcus was about to run for the 'castle' he hear a clicking noise to his left, followed by trees falling. Suddenly, a giant black mass threw Marcus across the clearing.

Getting up Marcus saw his attacker was giant mantis like creature. Its head was shaped like a triangle with blood red eyes and a mouth that split down the middle by its lower jaw. Its body was white and covered in armor like the Deathstalker and had black spikes protruding from its legs. Its arms and legs were long and sleek but its upper arms were replaced with two large, yellow scythe blades. Its back seemed to have two protrusions as well but they were sleeker than the legs.

Seeing it turn to him, Marcus quickly unsheathed his blade and blocked a sudden strike by the Grimm. Unfortunately, as he struggled to block the blade, he noticed that the Grimm was only using one of its scythe arms.

Reaching back with its other 'arm', the Grimm tried to bisect him only for Aren to help start blocking the slash with all his strength. Struggling, the two started trying to put more force into their blades to keep from dying.

Just as the Grimm started to overpower them, it was hit by two aura spheres causing it to disengage the two, revealed the two thin protrusions on its back to be wings. Taking to the air, it flew high enough to stay out of what it thought was the shooter's range.

Looking up, Aren saw Ryan charging more Aura Spheres in his hands while Oscar rushed over to them before feeling him grab his arm getting yanked to his feet.

As Ryan continued firing warning shots at it, Oscar unsheathed his swords and asked,

"How did you two manage to piss off an Unholy Priest?"

"Us? This is the first time we saw this thing!" Marcus countered, as he pressed a button on his sword, shifting it into a M1 Garand and taking aim.

"Well who else could have piss it off for it the attack you?" Oscar asked slightly annoyed.

"Oscar, the Priest's got burn marks on it." Ryan said as he reached for his own weapon.

"Damn! So it's after us?" He asked, looking at Ryan, who nodded in response.

"Just great. Well, seeing as how it already attacked you two. Mind lending a hand?"

Before either could respond, the Unholy Priest tried to drop onto them only for them all to jump out of the way. Going in for payback from its first attack, Marcus shifted his weapon back into its Gladius mode and took a powerful swing at its side. Seeing his advance, the Priest raised its 'arm' and blocked his strike. Retaliating with its other 'arm', it once again tried to bisecting him, only for Marcus to raise his right arm and stop the blade with his forearm.

Using his partner's defense as a distraction, Aren used his semblance to jump into the air above the Grimm. Shifting his weapon into assault rifle mode, he unloaded a clip on its back while descending. Unfortunately, the bullets only caused sparks to fly as the dust connected with its thick armor.

Still try to fight the Grimm in a bout of strength, Marcus was slowly started to push the Priest back. Feeling itself losing the battle, the Grimm suddenly disengaged Marcus, causing the powerhouse to stumble forward. Trying to take advantage of its prey's situation the Priest once again tried to plunge its scythe hands into the boy, only for it to be peppered by bullet, courtesy of Aren.

Once again spreading its wings, the Grimm tried to fly away only for Ryan to do the unexpected. Shifting his weapon into tonfa blade mode, he darted towards the Grimm.

Before Oscar could stop him, Ryan was already in front of the Unholy Priest. Seeing this, the Grimm was caught off guard allowing Ryan to quickly jump onto its back start a frenzy of slashes across its body.

Looking up, Oscar saw the despite the attacks the Unholy Priest was starting to fly toward the giant ravine where the other fought their previous chasers. Not wanting the other to have to worry about another Grimm, he put his finger on the trigger mechanism of his blade and pulled it causing the steel blade to suddenly shift to have an earth brown edge around it. With the newly shifted blades in hand, he slammed them into the ground causing a pillars of earth to rise in front of the Unholy Priest delaying its flight.

Seeing the Grimm stop, Aren shifted his weapons and aimed his sniper rifle at its wings. Seeing his partner's actions, Marcus added his own rounds to the mixed causing the Priest to fall back down to earth as the bullets found their target, causing the wings to quickly fall apart.

As Ryan experienced the quick descent, he felt as though he had overstayed his welcome but should leave a 'parting gift'. A he jumped off the Grimm, he shifted _Guardian's Guild_ into Bo-staff mode and slammed the earth dust boosted weapon into its back, before jumping to the dirt below. Once the Priest hit the ground in caused a spider web effect to appear on the ground from the force of the parting blow, giving those on the ground enough time to regroup before rushing in and switching from slashing at its armored body to shooting at it as it wildly slashed at them.

Wondering if it would work, Ryan reactivated his tonfa blade mode before running under the beast and focusing his slashes on its legs.

Almost instantly, the Priest's legs started to fall apart as Ryan's slashed meet joints. With the beast now immobilized, for the most part, the four started to add more pressure on the Grimm. Ryan and Oscar focused on becoming its main targets, while Aren and Marcus opened fired from a distance.

Having had enough of the attacks, the Grimm tried to overpower two before it with it 'arms' only for the pair to redirect the attack off their own blades. As soon as the Grimm's blades hit the ground, Ryan quickly shifted his weapon into bo-staff mode and started assaulting the Unholy Priest with earth dust swings. Oscar, seeing that the hits were causing cracks in the Grimm's armor, started to focus on the cracked areas, effectively creating breaks in the armor for Marcus and Aren to aim at. As the Grimm's slashes started to slow down, the four grouped up. Turning to the other, Ryan looked at them and said,

"It slowing down, so let's finish it and get to the cliff."

Nodding at the world hopper, they all shifted their weapons into their blade modes and charged at the Grimm. Not going down without a fight, the Grimm readied itself by raising both 'arms', before side swiping at the huntsman-in-training. Ryan and Marcus, being in the front, intercepted the swipes and held them back while Aren and Oscar jumped up and covered the broken armor in deep gashes. Screeching in pain, the Unholy Priest reared back and began to flail and swipe wildly.

As the quartet watched it flail around trying to find a time to strike, Ryan felt a surge of aura coming from his partner. Looking at Oscar, he saw the swordsman's eyes glow a crimson color before he seemingly teleported behind the Unholy Priest, much Ruby does with her semblance.

As he reappeared he suddenly sheathed his blades causing one of the Priests arms to explode into blood.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Marcus rushed in and shifted his sword into a form they hadn't seen before. The weapon at first glance looked like his M1 Garand with an angled gunstock, except that there was no trigger mechanism and were the gunstock angled the tip of his sword appeared.

Swinging the weapon with both hand, Marcus effectively scatter the Grimm's remaining 'arm'. The Unholy Priest, now completely immobilized, could only screech at Marcus as he lifted the war club above his head and brought it down with enough force to crush the Grimm's skull and some of the ground below it as well.

With the Unholy Priest taken care of, the four stopped to take a breath. As they all caught their breath they final realized their surroundings and saw that Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora and Ren was killed the Deathstalker. While Ruby, Yang, Blake and Weiss were finishing of the Nevermore, courtesy of Ruby beheading it.

As the carcass fell, Marcus turned to Aren and said,

"You sure know how to pick a girl, Aren."

The comment caused Aren to blush up a storm and the older teens to share a chuckle.

* * *

"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester, Dove Bronzewing, Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the Black Bishop pieces. From this forward you will work together as Team CRDL. Led by Cardin Winchester." Professor Ozpin told the newly formed team before the entire first year populous.

Soon after they meet up again, the twelve teens arrived at the cliff side and were directed back to the auditorium, where they currently being assigned their teams.

"Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the White Rook pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team JNPR. Led by Jaune Arc." The professor said much to Jaune's surprise, and as Ryan noted, Pyrrha's joy.

The moment soon ended when Pyrrha, in her joy, tried give Jaune a reassuring shoulder punch with too much force behind it, causing the Arc to fall ungracefully.

"Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the White Knight pieces. From the day forward you will work together as Team RWBY. Led by Ruby Rose." Ozpin said.

Ruby, much like Jaune before her, was shocked while Yang ran up and hugged her kid sister, with glee.

"And finally, Aren Franco, Ryan Ketchum, Oscar Kurokawa and Marcus Baldovino. The four of you retrieved the White Pawn pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team ROAM. Lead by Ryan Ketchum."

As the Professor announced the last team, he smiled and said,

"Looks like thing are shaping up to be a… interesting year."

* * *

 **Well there's the initiation. I wore it all in one go because I'm not one for cliffhangers. For those that read my previous story you noticed that I cut the other languages, that's because I find it better to keep it in one language.**


	5. Their Badges and Their Burdens

**I know it's been a while, but here's chapter 5. Enjoy**

 **[I own nothing but my OC]**

* * *

"Huh, where were you? And since when have you had stubble?" Was the first thing Ryan heard as he entered the dorm he now shared with his teammates.

The dorm room was a pretty plain room, the walls were a tannish color, with some almost pale blue color covered the bottom fifth of the wall. There was a pretty big window in the center of the back wall adjacent to the doorway to the room. The wood floor was a dark brown with a red and tan circular carpet in the middle of the floor. The team had decided to move their beds to the four corners of the room when they first got there and moved the desk provided for them against the wall giving them some room to move around. Marcus, due to his more wild nature, brought up the idea making bunk beds but the other three-fourths of Team ROAM knew that it would end in chaos and quickly shot down the idea.

Having had some energy left they decided to add their own personal decorations to the room. Aren placed some monitors and added in a computer system that seemed to connect with his scroll. Oscar placed a couple of trophies reminiscent of his second place wins in past tournament he has participated in on the bookshelf. Ryan placed a picture of Ash, his aunt Delilah and himself in front of their house the day he start his journey on his desk to always remember what he fought for. Marcus placed what looked like a hand sketched poster of a raven up on the wall near his head and a strange locked box.

"In order, I was out for a morning jog. I usually do it every morning, so don't be surprised to not find me in bed in the mornings. As for the second, every morning before I shave." He answered Oscar, as he walked over to his desk, grabbed his school uniform and straight razor before headed for the showers.

Stepping out of the shower, he put on the uniform and looked himself over in the mirror. The uniform consisted of a black dress suit over a solid dark blue vest and a white dress shirt. Around his neck, he now wore a red tie and on his feet he bore a pair of jet black dress shoes. The jacket had a gold trim tracing down along the collar and buttons as well as on the shoulders.

Looking at his teammates, he saw that they had slightly tweaked their own uniforms. Marcus had the jacket on his shoulders with his shirt untucked. Oscar kept his jacket and vest open with the tie gone and the top button open. Aren wore his knee guards and had the dress shirt open, revealing black undershirt and a weird looking silver necklace, they hadn't noticed before.

The necklace was jacket head with a sort of obsidian colored smoke coming from the mouth, yet going down the eyes it had two lines running downwards. One was ash grey like his knee guards while the other was a teal color.

Deciding to make it something more his style, he rolled up his sleeves and made it look like his normal attire just in uniform coloring.

After tweaking his outfit, he saw his teammates looking at him expectantly. Sighing at them he said,

"Well seeing as how we already unpacked last night and decorated I guess we should see when our class starts."

Pulling out his scroll, a device similar to a holo caster in design but a Pokedex in functions, he saw that their first class wasn't until nine, giving them a good thirty minutes to get to class.

"Alright, our first class starts in about thirty minutes, so grab what you need fast so we can get going. It's the first day of class and I doubt the Professor would appreciate us being late." he told them before heading for the door, his teammate following him in a line, reminding him of little Ducklett following their mother Swanna.

* * *

"Monsters, Demons, Prowlers of the night. Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names. But I merely refer to them as prey." Those were the words spoken by their current Professor, Professor Port.

The Professor appeared to be a middle-aged man, possibly in his mid-fifties, if he had to guess. He wore a double-breasted burgundy suit with gold piping and buttons. The pants he wore tucked into olive boots, which reminded Ryan of cavalry boots. He had gray hair and a mustache of a similar color. The professor reminded Ryan of Professor Birch from the Hoenn Region, in that he seemed to enjoy a more hands on approach to the material.

Despite the class' importance, Ryan couldn't find himself to care much, as most of the drawings Professor Port had on the board behind him were mostly of common Grimm that he had read about in the previous week. He almost felt jealous of Team RWBY, who were sitting in the front of them, for almost missing the class.

Looking down at the all-girls team he saw Blake and Yang were looking forward at the professor, while Weiss seemed to be taking notes on the bragging and Ruby jumped out of her nap once the professor's shouted.

Looking over at his team, he saw that to his left Marcus was doing a free hand sketch of Professor Port's current position, rather expertly in fact.

To his right, Aren was laying his head on the desk his right sleeve rolled up. Yet as Ryan watched him more, he noticed that he was counting something. His scars. His hands were coated with small scars that seemed to have aged years ago. They mostly remained on his hands but some traveled along his forearms. They didn't look deep, just enough to breaking the skin and leave the mark, but they were too many to ignore.

Next to Marcus, Oscar was casually leaning back in his chair taking a nap, apparently unaffected by the Professor's shout.

Turning his attention back to the professor, he saw him standing awkward silence as if expecting something.

Seeing that his joke was not well received, Professor Port continued his speech.

"Uh… and you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy. Now as I was saying, Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world. Our planet is absolutely teeming with a creature that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces and that's where we come in. Huntsmen. Huntresses."

Stopping slightly in his speech, he winked at Yang, much to her discomfort, before continuing,

"Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves. From what you ask? Why, the very world."

As he said that, a random student a row behind him suddenly cheered in the middle of the silent classroom, before noticing all attention was on him and sitting back down.

Ignoring the outburst, Professor Port continued,

"That is what you are training to become, but first a story. A tale of a young handsome man… me."

As the Professor started the tale of his youth, Ryan started to focus on everyone's aura to be able to memories their aura signatures.

As he did, he found uniqueness in their auras. Ruby he already knew left a rose petal effect wherever it went. Yang's, he found, gave off fiery effect that seemed to remain calm at the time. Weiss had a snowflake like effect coming of her but rather than it trailing off of her like Ruby it seemed to remain close to her. Blake's was a black colored ribbon that wrapped around her almost like she wanted to hide from someone. Aren's aura looked like he was the eye of a storm as it raged around him waiting to be released by his Semblance. Marcus' looked like a coat covered him but it oddly looked like his right arm was sewn on like it would on a coat. Oscar's was the oddest of them all though.

His aura was three colors with black clinging to him like Weiss' but it mostly remained within his body, yet looking at his face he saw it was covered by a white coloring with crimson on his eyes.

Before he could continue his observation of the Aura' present, Ryan heard snickering from below. Looking towards it, he saw Ruby doodling on her piece of paper before showing it to be a crudely draw Professor Port titled 'Professor Poop', getting a laugh out of Yang and some others that saw it. While Ryan was a bit disappointed in the younger teen for doing something like that in class, but he understood as he himself couldn't find himself to listen to the Professor's story.

Hearing someone clear their throat, Ryan saw Professor Port look at them causing all other activity to cease. Satisfied with the attention, Professor Port continued,

"In the end the Beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high. Celebrated as a hero. The moral of the story? A true huntsman must be honorable. A true huntsman must be dependable. A true huntsman must be strategic, well-educated and wise. So who among you believe themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

Ryan noted that as the professor stated the traits needed to be a Huntsmen or Huntress, Ruby was demonstrating the exact opposite of the trait causing Weiss to slowly start to become enraged. As the professor finished his speech with the question, Weiss' hand shot up and she yelled,

"I do sir."

"Well then let's find out. Step forward and face your opponent." Professor Port said, revealing a big steel cage at one end of the room.

In side snarls could be heard as well as the cage occasionally jumping in place.

As Weiss left to get changed into her battle outfit, Ryan hear Oscar mutter,

"No it's not horse."

Before he could ask what he was talking about, Weiss came out and assumed a battle stance opposite the cage. Hoping to give her confidence, her team cheered her on.

"Go Weiss." Yang yelled, as she gave a fist pump.

"Fight well." Blake cheered, waving a small 'RWBY' flag in her hand, much to Ryan's confusion.

"Yeah, represent Team RWBY!" Ruby added cheerfully, which caused Weiss to break her stance and retorted with,

"Ruby! I'm trying to focus!"

Hearing her partner's comment, Ruby fell out of her happy mood and into a more solemn attitude, much to Ryan's displeasure. Wanting to comment on Weiss' attitude, he stopped himself when he heard Aren growl at the white clad girl.

Wanting to avoid a confrontation between the two, Ryan put his hand on Aren's shoulder and slowly released a calming aura into the boy to get him to relax. Had he paid more attention to Aren's posture, he would have notice the almost feral nature of it, along with the twitching from his tailbone.

Having relaxed Aren enough, Ryan looked towards the Professor and saw him raise his blunder-axe in the air and say

"All right let the match begin."

As the weapon connected with the lock on the cage, it revealed a Grimm that remained Ryan of a miniature Mamoswine.

The Grimm had four eyes, a series of plates along its back and on its thighs, and two extra sets of tusks, which looked like a Seviper's fangs. The interesting part was that the tusk connected to a more Mightyena like snout.

Glancing at the board, Ryan saw it was a Boarbatusk, causing him to grimace when he remember it's armor was one of its strong points.

Before Ryan could think more on the subject, the Boarbatusk charged out at Weiss, causing her to have to jump to the side in order to dodge. As she dodged she tried to hurt it by swiping her rapier at it right side as it ran, but attack did nothing, a testament to its armor's strength.

As the two faced each other in an analytical position, Professor Port laughed and said,

"Wasn't expecting that, were you?"

The comment only caused Ruby to give words of encouragement much to Weiss' annoyance, before the heiress shot towards the Grimm. The Boarbatusk, not a stranger to conflict, easily used Weiss' momentum to catch _Myrtenaster_ in its tusk, causing her to struggle against the Grimm's strength.

Chuckling at the mistake, Professor Port comment,

"Oh new approach, I like it."

"Come on Weiss, show it whose boss." Ruby said hoping it would help give her partner soon much needed hope.

The comment caused the opposite effect, as Weiss instantly glared at the younger teen. The distraction proved costly, as it gave the Boarbatusk enough time to hook to blade into a deeper grip before yanking it out of Weiss' hands and across the room. With the heiress disarmed the Boarbatusk pushed forward and knocked her back.

"Ho ho. Now what will you do without your weapon?" Professor Port asked, intrigued to see how this Huntress-in-training would fight without a mode of defense.

Suddenly hearing another growl, Ryan was surprised to pinpoint the sound to his partner.

Not wanting to ask questions about a matter best kept private, Ryan turned back to match and saw Weiss dodge the Boarbatusk's charge, before making a dash for her weapon.

Seeing her partner reach her weapon, Ruby yelled,

"Weiss! Go for its belly there's no armor underneath!"

"Stop telling me was to do!" Weiss responded in anger, causing Ruby to emit pure sadness, much to Ryan and Aren's dismay.

Back at the match, the Boarbatusk suddenly jumped into the air and, much to Ryan's surprise, performed a Rollout attack heading straight for Weiss.

The white-clad Heiress then created a blue glyph in front of herself causing the charging Boarbatusk to run right into it and fall on its back. Seeing the Grimm vulnerable, Weiss back flipped onto a blue glyph behind her, before turning it black to stop herself midair and shifted it back to blue to shot herself forward at the Grimm, landing with the blade in its belly ending the match.

"Bravo! Bravo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training. I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure cover the assigned readings. And stay vigilant. Class dismissed." Professor Port said, as Weiss caught her breathe.

The moment class was dismissed, Weiss walked out of class completely ignoring her team much to Ruby's dismay.

Jaune, having been silent the whole class session, voiced his curiosity,

"Sheesh, what's with her?"

* * *

Weiss, having stormed away from Ruby after her expressing her thoughts on the leadership of Team RWBY, now found herself leaning against some railing in a porch like structure outside the thinking of how to get Ozpin to switch her and Ruby's roles on the team. As she thought on her task she failed to notice that evening had approached.

"You motives were rash. That's why you nearly lost to the Boarbatusk today, not Ruby." A voice said behind her.

Quickly unsheathing her weapon and turning to face the speaker, Weiss found Oscar casually sitting in one of the benches on the 'porch'.

"What do you mean my motives were rash?" Weiss asked, narrowing her eyes at the teen behind her blade.

"Exactly what it implies, Princess. You were so adamant on proving yourself better than Ruby, that even when she gave you advice out of the kindness of her heart you resented her." Oscar answered with a stronger glare.

"I didn't need any help. And stop calling me Princess!" She growled in response.

"Oh but you did. During your little 'temper tantrum', you made enough mistakes to have cost you your life were that a real situation." Oscar growled louder.

"I did not have a temper tantrum." Weiss answered as she slowly sheathed her rapier.

"Oh really then you went up to fight the Boarbatusk cause you wanted to, not because you didn't get what you wanted like you usually do?" Oscar asked the sarcasm almost visible in his words.

"Me get everything I want? That not even remotely true." Weiss responded, folding her arms to try and get her point across.

As she looked at Oscar she saw him raise his eyebrow and amended her statement.

"Well not entirely true."

"Weiss your problem is that you treat Ruby as if she was our age. You have to remember she's the youngest person to ever come to Beacon. She isn't mature because she hasn't had to be, so cut her some slack every once in a while." Oscar said, as he started to stand to head back to his dorm.

"Oscar?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah."

"Aren't you frustrated that you aren't the leader of your team? I mean you've gotten second place in the Mistral regional tournament four years in a row. So why do just let someone like Ryan to lead, granted he's a strong leader, but why?"

"You're right, I have a big reputation, but that's on my own, I never lead anyone into battle, yet Ryan. He saw a chance to end the Grimm quicker and he not only took it but made opening for use to use too. We only just meet and he led us like we were the oldest of friend. That's why I don't have any regret being led by him." Oscar answered.

"Then if I can't lead… what do I do? Weiss asked incomplete confusion.

"You give Ruby the best support you can on the battlefield. If you see her about to get hit, defend her. Stand by her to the end. That's what you can do." He answered, as he continued on his way to his dorm room.

* * *

"You two did the right thing you know?" Ryan said, as he finished stretching on his bed.

"Huh?" Was the joint response from the only two other members in his dorm, those being Aren and Oscar.

"You helped Ruby and Weiss get through their differences and possibly made their whole team a lot stronger." Ryan said as he kicked off the wall and headed towards his bed.

"Huh, how do you know what they did?" Marcus asked, as he came into the dorm room clad only in a pair of black gym short revealing his right arm to have a fading scar going down the shoulder to his armpit.

Chuckling lightly Ryan answered,

"Cause I was going to do it before I saw them go after the two."

"Oh? And who can you be so sure that they helped change anything?" Marcus continued his questioning, as he headed to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

"Their Aura's. They feel calm, instead of full of rage and pain like they did when class ended." Ryan responded.

"How can you 'feel' their auras?" Aren asked, curious of his new leader's abilities.

"I think it's more of their emotions that I 'feel' not as much their aura's. Though I can see auras if I want to. But to answer your question Aren, it's sort of a survival mechanism I developed to stay alive while traveling." Ryan answered, knowing he could explain most of his aura abilities without talking about his 'predicament'.

"What do you mean 'survival mechanism'? Marcus asked.

"Oh, that's right I haven't had the chance to tell you much about me have I? Huh well I guess I should started know."

* * *

 **Theirs the fifth chapter of the Aura Huntsman. Anything to revise or comment on leave them in the reviews. AuraGuardianRyan out.**


	6. Jaundice

Here's chapter 6 I hope you enjoy. And for those of you who have notice I did update the guy's Bio on my profile so check it out.

 **| |- Thoughts**

 **_- Other Language**

 **[I own nothing but my OC. Ulf and Juli belong to one of my close friends, LadyofPixieCastle.]**

* * *

"That's enough."

As the lights came on in the arena, Ms. Goodwitch stepped forward, stopping Cardin Winchester, the leader of Team CRDL, from slamming his mace into Jaune head during their sparring match.

"Students as you can see Mr. Arc's aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and the official may call the match."

In the few weeks that they had spent in school, Ms. Goodwitch's Dueling class the most entertaining. It reminded him of his sparring matched with Gallade and Lucario in the few times he wasn't on mission or protection Lady Ilene. He usually used his time in the class to compare his own fighting skills to those that had specifically trained to be Huntsmen and Huntresses. In terms of experience he would say he had more experience in a fight than most students, with the exception of Oscar, Pyrrha and Yang.

In those weeks he had also discovered his final verdict on his treatment of the dueling professor. He had decided to treat her as a person of high respect if possible more so than Ozpin who had given him a purpose in this universe. The main reason being her personality, while not like his Queen was still something he often found in his Aunt Delilah when he grew up.

Looking down at the match Ryan saw Ms. Goodwitch looking down at Jaune before saying,

"Mr. Arc. It's had been weeks now, please try to refer to your scroll during your scroll during combat. Gauging your aura will help you to decide when it is appropriate to attack or when it is better to move to a more… defensive strategy.'

That little tidbit of information was a surprise to Ryan to see that he could not only see when he was using too much aura, but also see his teammates own aura reserve. He really didn't need to worry about his aura reserve but his teammates on the other hand. As Ryan returned his attention back to the arena, he saw Winchester heave his mace onto his shoulder and started to walk away.

"Remember everyone, the Vytal Festival only a few months away it won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale so keep practicing. Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will be representing all of Vale." Ms. Goodwitch said, before the bell rang signaling the end of class the beginning of lunch.

Looking toward the arena, Ryan saw Jaune with his head down looking at the floor in shame. 'Feeling' a strong melancholy air near him he saw Pyrrha was the cause of the feeling.

Signing, he noticed that Ms. Goodwitch was on her scroll still in the arena. Remembering he had a question that had been pestering him for a while, Ryan looked over at RWY, Pyrrha and Oscar. Seeing them starting to head for the door, Ryan started to follow in their direction but took a turn toward the stairs of the arena and walked towards Ms. Goodwitch.

Seeing his partner wasn't following them anymore, Oscar asked,

"Where are you going?"

"Just gotta talk to Ms. Goodwitch about something. I'll meet up with you guys in a while."

As he approached Ms. Goodwitch, he started thinking of a way to ask his question without making it turn into a big show.

"Yes, Mr. Ketchum?" Glynda said as she noticed him walking over to her.

"I was wondering if you could help me with something, Ms. Goodwitch." Ryan replied.

* * *

"So there were in the middle of the night." Nora said, trying to make her story more ominous.

She along with the rest of Team JNPR, Team RWBY, and Team ROAM, excluding Ryan, we're currently in the cafeteria getting some food before the beginning of their next class. Currently Jaune sat at one end table thoughtlessly picking at his food, with Ruby and Aren sitting across from him, worried expressions evident on their faces. Next to the blond sat Pyrrha and Oscar. Nora sat next to the Mistral Tournament runner up, with Ren and Marcus to her left. Across from the Trio where Weiss, who was filing her nails, Yang adamantly listening to Nora's tale, and Blake, who simply read her book and subtly glancing at the entrance of the cafeteria waiting for Ryan.

While she hadn't been about to explain her attraction for Ryan, it help that he was as much a bookworm as her, so they would often discuss books they had read during their breaks. It became such a common occurrence, that Yang would often tease them about secretly dating each other. While Blake would lightly blush at the thought, Ryan would often just counter with something about her interaction with Marcus.

But as they noted, they weren't the only ones to get closer, Yang and Marcus would often be together in the arena sparring with each other, while Aren and Ruby were often be seen talking about weapons or technology. Weiss and Oscar often talked about dust or some of Oscar's old tournament matches, making them another target of Yang's teasing.

"It was day." Ren corrected his hyperactive friend.

"We were surrounded by Ursa." Nora continued, unaffected by Ren interruption.

"They were Beowolves." Marcus interrupted.

"Dozens of them!" Nora said, as she jumped up from her sitting position, surprising her only interested listener.

"Two of them" Ren continued to correct.

"But they were no match and in the end Ren, Marcus and I took them down, and made a boat load of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs." Nora finished, with a smile on her face.

Chuckling at his old friends antics, Marcus looked over at Yang and said,

"I wouldn't believe her if I were you. She's being having that dream for a month now."

Hearing the Roman themed warrior's words, Nora turn to him and stuck out her tongue in retaliation.

Facing her partner as he picked at his food, Pyrrha worriedly asked,

"Jaune? Are you okay?"

"Uh? Oh… yeah. Why?" He responded, trying to avert her eyes.

"It's just you seem a little… not okay." Ruby responded awkwardly.

Seeing that everyone was giving him looks of concern, Jaune quickly tried to escape further questioning by responding,

"Guys, I'm fine. Seriously, look."

As he spoke, he tried to come out as cheerful and gave a shaky thumbs up, with a forced smile to go with.

At that moment, they all heard a loud obnoxious laugh coming from the other end of the cafeteria. Looking over, they saw Team CRDL standing around a table currently occupied by two girls sitting across from each other. The two girls were both wearing the female uniform, but other than that they were two polar opposites.

The one closest to them was a small girl with long, brown hair and brown eyes. She had a pair of long, brown rabbit ears, making her easily identifiable as a Faunus, and seemed uncomfortable by Team CRDL's presence.

The other girl however was being restrained by Dove, as she continuously tried to attack Cardin. She had green spiked plugs in her ears that seemed to blend well with her spiky green hair. She was glaring heavily at the obnoxious leader with her red snakelike eyes. While her eyes may have alluded to her heritage, it was the scales under her eyes and flicking forked tongue that proved her to be a Faunus. She also seemed to be stronger than her stature alluded to, as despite seeming to be as tall as Ruby, Dove looked to be struggling to keep her restrained.

Wanting to return to the topic they were discussing before the outburst, Pyrrha said,

"Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school."

Jaune, for his part, wasn't really paying attention as he clenched his fist at Cardin's actions. Realizing that Pyrrha had stopped talking he quickly released his fist and responded,

"Who? Cardin Winchester? Nah, he just likes to mess around you know practical jokes."

"He's a bully." Ruby said with a glare.

"Oh please. Name one time, he's 'bullied' me?" Jaune retorted, trying to sound confident.

"There are all the times he's slapped your books out of your hands." Oscar said

"The time he activated your shield as you walked into one of your classes." Marcus continued.

"And let's not forget the time he shoved you into one of the rocket propelled lockers and sent out on a 'trip'." Aren ended, his voice laced with anger as he remember having to jam his blade in between the locker door to force it open.

Trying to lighten the mood, Jaune laughed it off and responded,

"I didn't land far from the school."

"Jaune you know if you ever need help you can just ask." Pyrrha said, hoping to encourage her secret crush.

"Oh, I know. We break his legs!" Nora said with a determined look in her eyes, as she stood up and smiled.

Hoping to end the conversation, Jaune stood up and said,

"Guys, really it's fine. Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me. He's a jerk to everyone."

As if to prove his point, the laughing from Team CRDL got louder followed by a scuffle and a cries of pain. Looking over, Cardin now had the rabbit Faunus by one of her floppy ears, while the other girl was struggling even harder to attack Cardin. Giving the poor Faunus' ear a tug, Cardin continued ignored her pleas to stop.

The feeling of rage oozed off the present members of Team ROAM, as Pyrrha, Ren and Ruby had to restrain them.

"Didn't you hear her Winchester? She asked you to stop."

Upon hearing the voice, everyone turned to see Ryan in front of Cardin with the ginger's wrist in his grip

Cardin, feeling brave because of the number advantage, looked up at Ryan and said,

"Oh? Are you going to make me stop, Ketchum?"

As he spoke, Russell subtly came up behind Ryan and put him in a hold. Thinking they had him, Cardin got up and smirked and threw a punch at Ryan's face.

Having already known what they had planned to do through the feeling of their auras, Ryan waited for Cardin to throw the punch before countering. As the fist started to cock back, Ryan pulsed his aura, causing Russell's hold to weaken. Thrusting his arms outwards, Ryan broke the hold completely and twisted his body to the left, effectively causing Cardin's fist to connect with his teammate, knocking Russell out. Using the twist to his advantage, Ryan connected his elbow into the side of Cardin's head, causing the ginger's ear to ring and stun him.

Sky, trying to catch Ryan off guard, used the table as a springboard and threw a fist forward. Instead of dodging the punch Ryan easily caught with one hand and used his other to grip Sky's throat, before releasing the leg and slamming Sky back first into the table. As the bully gasped and rolled on the table in pain, they all were shocked to see the table visible dented.

Cardin, having watched his team be made fools of, quickly swung at Ryan again. Ryan, not even turning to face the brunette bully, leaned his head to the side to avoid the punch and quickly grabbed the extended limb. The moment the arm was in his grip, Ryan flung him over his shoulder and held Cardin down by his shoulder, his own fist already aimed for the bully's head.

"You know Cardin I've meet a lot of people how hurt the innocent for no reason other than sick kicks but never in my life have I meet an idiot who's had the audacity to do something like this to their own colleagues. If it weren't for the fact that -" Ryan started only for him to be interrupted by a loud cracking noise.

Looking over at the source of the crack, they saw the previously restrained girl reaching her arm behind Dove's head, as he cradled a broken nose in his hands, and slammed it onto the table top. Having nothing to restrain her anymore, she turned her angry expression to Cardin. Using the same tactic as Sky, she vaulted over the table and tried to stomp on the restrained bully's head.

Faster than they could react, Aren suddenly activated his semblance and caught the girl mid air. As the landed he landed on top of her holding her hands above her head.

As she struggled against her capture, the door swung open with a huge force. Turning to the door, everyone saw the culprit to be a wolf Faunus. He was tall but not as tall as Ryan. His ears twitched every once in awhile amidst his long and surprisingly, forest-green hair. His yellow eyes locked onto Aren, causing the tension to thicken.

Growling, the boy yelled,

" **LET HER GO!"**

As he yelled, the teen shot at Aren trying to save his friend from the gray green haired boy. As he reached Aren, he quickly tackled him off of the girl, but caused the two to roll on the ground. As they came to a stop, Aren was suddenly top of his back, holding the teen's arm behind his back with one hand, while the other one was whipping the blood of his nose from a punch the teen got in during the shuffle.

"Damn it, _Jules_. You leave me for a year with no contact whatsoever. Then when I finally see you again and stop you from killing an idiot, I get assaulted by one of your teammate. You really know how to have a hell of a family reunion." Aren said as Marcus came over to help him with the guy and Ruby started to help him clean the blood of his face.

" _Jules_? The only person that calls me that is…" She started, before her eyes widened and she ran up to him and hugged him tightly.

"AREN! I am so sorry. I didn't see it was you. Oh crap. Ulf really did get you good." She continued to say.

"Wait Ulf?" Ruby asked before turning over to the guy who attacked Aren.

"That voice? _LITTLE RED_?!" The now named Ulf yelled, from his position under Marcus' grip.

As everyone tried to make heads or tails of the situation, Yang walked up to Marcus and had him pull up Ulf before she gripped him by the collar and lifted him.

"So you finally decided to make your appearance _Ulfie_? What you leave Signal and suddenly you attack anyone before asking questions. A lot of people would expect that from me but you?" Yang growled out.

"I told you not to call me that _Matchstick_!" Ulf growled out.

"I would if it didn't ruffle your fur. And not only did you attack one of my new friends but you gave him a bloody nose. Do you have any idea how much it must have hurt Ruby seeing her boyfriend get in fight in front of her?" Yang teasingly said.

The moment those words left her mouth everyone but Ruby and Aren sweat dropped. As for the two names teens they were blushing up a storm.

Sighing at Yang's sense of humor. Ryan hauled up the still restrained Cardin and threw him at the bloody Dove and recovering Sky, who was carrying an unconscious Russell on his shoulder.

"Get out of here before I change my mind." He growled out as they all limped away to the nurse's office.

Turning over to his group he smiled at the less hostile environment, which actually caught most of them of guard.

"So you three gonna introducing us to your friend?" He asked in his usual calm voice.

"Oh yeah, guys this is Ulf Farran-Jones. He was a year ahead of Yang back at Signal." Ruby said with glee.

"Oh, so you know him through Yang?" Oscar asked with curiosity.

The blush on both Ruby and Ulf's faces showed that wasn't the case.

Chuckling, Yang answered for them.

"No. They meet through and advanced combat class Uncle Qrow signed Ruby up for. But cuz they were both weapon nuts and hung out so much… well… they go caught up in a dating rumor."

There was silence between the groups for a few seconds, before Marcus and the snake Faunus broke down laughing. Getting over his outburst Marcus asked,

"And knowing Yang, she tried to kill you didn't she Ulf?"

"For a second I thought she would." Ulf answered with a chuckle of his own.

"Alright, Aren?" Ryan asked, but frowned immediately came to his face when he saw Aren's face grow solum.

Seeing her friend's face fall, Ruby grew worried and asked,

"Aren? Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine…" he answered in a weak tone.

"Look I know were friends and all but how I meet her brings up some memories I'd rather not talk about. So let's leave it at she's an older sister to me, okay?" He asking in a tone that told them it was to be left alone till he was ready.

|Just what the hell happened to you Aren?| Marcus thought to himself, as he saw Juli brought him into a one armed hug.

Clearing his throat to get the other's attention, Ryan said,

"I think an introduction is order, my names Ryan Ketchum. And this is my Team: Oscar Kurokawa, Aren Franco and Marcus Baldovino. Otherwise known as Team ROAM."

Seeing Ryan's action, Ruby followed after his introduction motioning for a reluctant Weiss and an indifferent Blake to join her and her sister.

"These are our teammates. Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna. Team RWBY at your service." She said with a childish glee.

"HUH! Two years ahead of your class and already the leader of a Team? That impressive Ruby" Ulf said, with a voice that teetered between surprised and full of pride for his young friend.

The comment caused Ruby to gain an embarrassed expression as she rubbed the back of her neck.

Jaune seeing that the two seemed friendly enough lead his team over to the other and introduced them.

"Hey... uh we're Team JNPR. Friends of Yang and Ruby. I'm Jaune Arc. She's Pyrrha Nikos and those two are Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren.

"A pleasure. Any friends of these two are friends of mine." Ulf responded.

"Hey Ulf where Icarus? I thought you two were inseparable?" Yang asked hoping to see one of her older friends after a year's absence.

"Icarus is with our leader, Kiru, their off campus on mission." Ulf said.

"Huh, I though the school only gave team mission." Jaune said.

"This is a more personal mission for them." Ulf answered cryptically.

* * *

As they walked to their next class, Yang pulled Blake towards the back of the group.

"So, when are you going to stop smiling every time you look over at Ryan and ask him out?" She asked with a teasing smirk.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Blake answered with a faint blush evident on her face.

"Oh come on Blake, I saw you looking at the door while we were talking to Jaune. I also saw you go from joy to fear the moment Sky tried to put Ryan in that hold." Yang teased, before smiling and saying,

"Plus you had a small trail of drool going down your mouth when he showed his strength"

"I did not!" Blake hissed back at her.

"You're right you didn't… but your eyes did get this weird look in them before you gave him a look over." Yang continued to tease.

Looking over at Marcus, Yang winked and nodded to Ryan subtly. Getting the message Marcus approached Ryan and was about to say something when Ryan beat him to it,

"You two aren't as subtle as you think you are?"

"Subtle?" Marcus asked, trying to act innocent.

"You guys keep forgetting I can 'feel' your emotion through your aura." Ryan answered.

"Now, rather than trying to talk me into a relationship, why don't we talk about your relationship with Yang. I mean for the two of you to plan to get me and Blake together you have to be spending a lot of time together." he continued with a smile as he saw Marcus' face light up like a Christmas tree.

* * *

As they sat in Professor Oobleck's class, Ryan started to think,

 _|But do I have feelings for Blake? I mean she is beautiful and all, but should I even try to get involved with anyone in this universe? I guess the better question is should I keep letting them get to know me? My priority should be to find Cyrus and find a way back home, but instead I'm in a school doing the exact opposite. Instead of distancing myself, I getting closer to them and telling them tidbits of my life. When the time comes to leave will I be able to just leave them all in the dark.|_

He was brought out of his thoughts by the loud yelling of their coffee addicted Professor.

Professor Oobleck appeared to be a young man, with messy green hair and brown eyes. His attire was disheveled: his white shirt was only partially tucked into his dark-green pants and the shirts collar was raised, showing a slack yellow tie, along with mismatched brown and black shoes. He also had round glasses that appear to be opaque.

As he watched the Professor constantly zoom across the classroom, Ryan couldn't help but feel slightly depressed as the Professors need to move reminded him so much of Ash's constant journeying. Still one couldn't help but to get tired just trying to follow the Professor.

Looking over to his left, he saw Blake and Pyrrha having the same difficulty as him trying to follow the Professor. The same could be said about the Faunus girl he helped earlier who introduced herself as Velvet Scarlatina as she nervously followed the professor from the front row.

Cardin was also in the class along with a bandaged Dove but while Dove seemed to be trying to pay attention, Cardin was leaning back in his chair without a care in the world, occasionally glaring at him.

As Ryan focused back on the class, he saw Professor Oobleck standing in front of Velvet before asking,

"Now have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?"

Much to Ryan's disgust most, if not all, Faunus in the class rose their hand, with caused him to clench his fist tightly.

"Dreadful. Simple Dreadful. Remember students it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence." The Professor said quickly before taking another sip of his coffee, much to the student's annoyance.

"I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang." He continued.

As tried to focus on the Professor he felt a quick sense of fear and anguish coming from his left side. Looking over at the one responsible for the feeling, he found Blake was the one emitting the feelings. Taking note to ask about it while they read later, Ryan looked past Blake and saw Cardin flicking a paper football at Jaune, waking the once sleeping blond.

As he woke Jaune was confronted by Professor Oobleck who believed Jaune was going to answer his previous question. Signing at Jaune's predicament Ryan watched as Pyrrha tried to give Jaune the answer through hand signs only for Jaune to completely misinterpret the answer and make a fool of himself.

As the Professor moved onto asking Cardin for his answer, Ryan clenched his fist tighter than before as he heard Cardin say,

"Well I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a soldier."

Seeing Pyrrha was going to tell Cardin off, Ryan beat her to the punch.

"I think your parents would beg to differ, Winchester." Ryan said causing everyone to look at him in surprise.

"You got problem, Ketchum?" Cardin retorted with a glare.

"Plenty, but right now I have the answer to the question. Many Faunus are blessed with the power of night vision, Professor." Ryan said ignoring the death glare Cardin was giving him.

Smiling at Ryan answer, Blake continued where he left of,

"General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched and the General was captured. Perhaps if he'd payed attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."

As she spoke the last phrase directly towards Cardin, he rose from his seat with his fist clenched. Seeing this Ryan rose from his own seat while glaring at the idiot who seemed to want to go for a second round.

Seeing him willing to fight for her Blake felt a little fluttered, but she also felt a little irritated that he didn't think she could protect herself.

Before another fight could ensue between Ryan and Cardin, Professor Oobleck said,

"That's quite enough. Mr. Winchester. Mr. Ketchum. I would like to see you two after class. That goes for you to Mr. Arc.

* * *

"Now what am I going to do with you three. Both Mr. Arc and Mr. Winchester have been struggling in my class since day one. Now I don't know if it's a lack of interest or it's just yourself in nature. As for you Mr. Ketchum. I'm disappointed. You have shown nothing but improvement since your first week and yet you pick a fight in my classroom." Professor Oobleck said as he looked at the three students before him.

In reality, Ryan knew this was more of a formality for him trying to fight in class and at most his punishment you'd be some book work he could finish while in the library with Blake after this.

Speaking of the black themes girl, he could sense both her's and Pyrrha's auras outside waiting for Jaune and himself respectively. It actually made him feel happy knowing that Blake would wait for him outside rather than go to the library and wait.

Getting out of his thoughts, he heard the professor say,

"History is important Gentlemen, if you don't learn from it... you are destined to repeat it. Mr. Arc and Mr. Winchester pages fifty-one to ninety-one. I want an essay on my desk by next class. Mr. Ketchum consider this your only warning if this happens again, it will be brought before the headmaster. Now run along."

As he finished that he zoomed across the room to continue his work.

Walking out of the room, they saw both Blake and Pyrrha waiting for them. Before they could even say a word, Cardin shoved Jaune to the ground and laughed only to get hit on the back of the head hard by Ryan.

Turning to try and fight Ryan he was greeted by a glaring Ryan.

"Turn around and walk away Cardin. I already beat you today and the only reason you're still moving is because my morals stop me from beating idiots within an inch of their lives without them being a threat. So I'll give you this warning. Now back off before I do something I'll regret in the long run." Ryan growled out much to the others surprise.

Seeing he wasn't going to back down, Cardin glared at him before walking away.

"You shouldn't let someone like him walk all over you, Jaune." Ryan said.

"Anyways see you later, come on Blake." He continued before walking to the library, Blake following behind him.

* * *

"Ryan?"

"Huh?"

"Why did you stand up for me earlier? I mean you know I could have taken him." Blake said as she looked up from her book.

Running a hand through his hair, Ryan looks at her and said,

"I know. But I just can't stand by and watch my friends get hurt, Blake. I was raised on the idea that your friend's safety should be your priority during anything. I know it sounds childish to think like that, but it's one of the only codes my Uncle told me to live by before he died." Ryan said while clenching his fist.

Reaching her hand over to his, she held his hand and started to gently rub his knuckles. Feeling her touch, he began to relax.

Smiling gently at him, her face suddenly changed confusing him.

"But why did you do the same for Velvet earlier? None of us knew her?" Blake asked, her stomach clenching with fear as her mind produced the crazy idea that Ryan might like the rabbit Faunus girl.

"Like I told Cardin, I've meet idiots the attack the innocent for fun so I don't stand there I do something about it." He responded.

"But why so aggressively? I know they deserved to be punished but Sky might have cracked his ribs with that slam. I'm not saying they didn't deserve it, but you could have hurt them less."

Looking down in disappointment, he surprised her by saying,

"I know it was excessive force, Blake. But the beating I gave them was because I wanted a scapegoat."

"A scapegoat?" She asked in confusion.

"Yeah." He responded with a disgusted tone in his voice.

"A scapegoat for what exactly?"

"The rage I felt at everyone for letting Cardin bully Velvet long enough to think he could lay a hand on her. I know you guys were disgusted by what he did too, but it doesn't change the fact that no one tried to do anything to help her till I got there." He said while looking down in shame at his aggressive actions.

In truth Blake was shocked. Of all the reasons she expected for Ryan's aggression, she didn't expect for him to be mad at everyone's lack of action. To be honest she was mad at that too. Being a Faunus herself it hurt her not helping Velvet immediately, but as she thought about it she realized she didn't step in because of fear.

As she got lost in her self-loathing, she failed to notice him move his other hand.

She was forced out of her thoughts when his larger hand enclosed her own. Looking up she saw him smiling warmly at her.

"I'm not mad at you guys or anyone for that matter anymore. I just don't like the idea of people that can stop anything just standing by."

Blushing at the rough and lightly callused feeling of Ryan's palm, Blake tried to avert her eyes from his as she answered with,

"N-no I understand. I don't like that feeling anymore than you do, but you have to understand Ryan… letting your emotions guide you won't solve anything."

Losing some of the brightness in his smile, Ryan looked her straight in the eyes before answering in a serious tone,

"I know Blake trust me. I've known that lesson for a while now."

Before she could ask what he meant, a rather loud rumble resonated for Ryan's stomach.

Blushing in embarrassment Ryan quickly moved his hands down towards his stomach.

Chuckling lightly at her 'reading buddies' timing, Blake ignored the longing feeling to hold his hand again and teasingly said,

"Come on Ryan. Let's go get you something to eat."

Nodding lightly at her he obliged her and followed her out of the library.

As they got closer to the cafeteria, Ryan placed a hand on Blake's shoulder before they enter the room. Turning to ask what was wrong, she found him smiling at her before saying,

"Thank you Blake, for listening to my rant. It's nice having someone I can trust be there for me when I need them"

As he entered the cafeteria however, his mind was focused on one thought,

 _|Their all my friends. Whether I wanted it to happen or not they've all found a way into my life. Blake especially. So... can I just leave them if I find a way back?|_

* * *

"Just like back home." Ryan said as his team, Team RWBY, Team JNPR and Team CRDL walked through Forever Fall with Ms. Goodwitch leading them deeper into the forest.

The forest was a mountainous area had many cliffs and was covered by a forest of red-leafed trees, which gave the every part of the forest a crimson-ish red color.

"Yes, students the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful but we are not here to sightsee. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect sample from the trees deep inside this forest and I'm here to make sure that none of you die while doing so. Each of you is to gather one jar worth of red sap. However this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm so be sure to stay by your teammates. We will rendezvous back here at four o'clock. Have fun." Ms. Goodwitch said as she led them into a clearing.

Looking over at Jaune, Aren saw that he was slowly following Cardin's group, much to Pyrrha's disappointment. Signing as he walked through the forest with Ruby, Aren started to think about the events of the week.

Ever since Jaune and Ryan got held back after class by Oobleck, everyone noticed the huge change in the blond's attitude. Not only did he get jittery around Cardin but he started to hang out with the bully more often. Since it annoyed him, he started to do some digging around and found Jaune's transcript was fake. While he wasn't exactly happy that his friend lied him way into the school, he knew that Jaune could still do everything that was on the transcript once he got over his nerves.

"Hey you okay?" Ruby asked as she stopped at one of the trees in the general area of the other groups.

Ryan was casually talking to Blake while they filled up their jars. Marcus and Yang were whispering to each other off near the back of the group. Ren was filling up a second jar, while Nora emptied the content of his first jar. Weiss and Oscar were quietly filling their jars with Oscar looking over at a lone Pyrrha fill her jar near himself and Ruby.

"Yeah just worried about Jaune, is all. The idiots making the wrong kind of friends." he replied.

"Well he wouldn't have gotten into Beacon if he couldn't defend himself now could." Ruby said, innocently.

As she said this, Aren saw Pyrrha tense slightly.

 _|So she knows too.|_

Before any other conversation could be made they all heard a loud roar from deeper in the forest. Soon after the roar they all saw all three members of Team CRDL, running out of the forest, yelling out something about an Ursa.

Russell, having continued to run while facing back to check if the Ursa was following them, crashed into Yang, who simply grabbed him by the shirt and lifted him up.

"Where is it?" Marcus said as he glared at the Mohawk haired boy.

"Back there. It's got Cardin!" Russel yelled.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha said in shock as she realized the blond wasn't amongst those running away.

"Yang! You and Blake, go get Professor Goodwitch." Ruby ordered.

"You two go with them. There could be more" Pyrrha commanded to Ren and Nora.

Sighing, Ryan activated his Aura Vision and looked for the running members of Team CRDL. Looking at Aren and Marcus he said,

"Marcus, you're with me were heading west to find those idiots that ran off before they get themselves killed by another Grimm. Oscar, you and Aren go with the girls."

* * *

As they reached the clearing they were meet by the sight of Cardin dragging himself away from the BIGGEST Ursa they had ever seen. As Winchester positioned himself to face the Grimm, while cradling his ribs, they saw the Grimm slash its claw at him only for it to be meet by Jaune's shield.

Seeing that Jaune was struggling to hold of the Ursa, Weiss brandished _Myrtenaster_ and Aren started to unsheathe _Jackals Fang_ , but before they could get involved both Oscar and Pyrrha stopped them.

Watching the fight, they was Jaune deliver a diagonal slash to the Ursas chest to get it of his shield, causing it to stagger back. As it recovered, it tried to crush Jaune only for the blond to jump out of the way. Using the force of its failed attack the Ursa tried to swat him aside, only of Jaune to jump over the paw. Yet as he was in the air the Ursa swung its other arm at Jaune hitting the blond. Rolling with the hit, Jaune easily got back on his feet and rushed the Grimm, only of it to swat him away as he tried to slash it midair.

As Jaune started to rise from the last hit, they all saw the Ursa running up to him. As both the combatants ran to meet each other for a final clash, Aren saw that Jaune's Shield was too low to block the Ursas attack.

Looking over, he saw Pyrrha holding out her hand which was now covered in a black aura. Back in the fight, he saw that Jaune's shield was covered in the same aura before it suddenly moved to a more adequate position to protect him. As he planted his foot on the ground for support, Jaune then jumped up to get the Ursa's paw of his shield while at the same time he swung his sword with all his might be heading the Grimm in one swing.

While Jaune recovered for the fight, Ruby looked at Pyrrha with a look of complete lost expression, before saying,

"Uh… what?"

"How did you…?" Weiss asked.

"Well, Ruby has her speed. Weiss has her Glyphs. Aren has his glide. Pyrrha's semblance is polarity." Oscar said.

"Wow you can control poles?" Ruby said in a whisper, much to Aren's amusement.

"No you dunce. It means she has control over magnetism." Weiss reported.

"Magnets are cool too." Ruby muttered, causing Aren to smile at her attitude, before chuckling and bringing her into a one armed hug.

While she was confused by his action, Aren just grinned wider and said,

"Never lose that attitude of yours Ruby."

This only worked to confuse her more.

As they watched Jaune sheathe his sword, they noticed Oscar and Pyrrha walking away.

"Wait where are you going?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, we have to tell them what happened." Ruby said.

"We could… " Oscar started.

" … Or perhaps we could just keep it our little secret." Pyrrha finished as she turned to walk away.

Before they could get far however, another more distant roar was heard.

Running to the roar, they found themselves in an open area again this time Ryan and Marcus were fighting of another Ursa but rather than struggling with the bear-like Grimm, they were struggling with the remaining members of Team CRDL as they kept redirecting the Ursa to them with their fears.

As the Ursa rushed the fearing trio again, it found itself running face first into an aura shield courtesy of Ryan.

Turning a glare to the young hunter it found itself being forced into a standing position as Marcus' war club meet its chin. Seeing the Grimm exposed so perfectly, Ryan threw Guardian's Guild at its chest.

With the blade now embedded in the Grimm's chest, Ryan yelled out,

"Marcus! Stepping stone!"

Looking rather confused for a second, Marcus' expression grew to a grin when Ryan suddenly created a sort of staircase out of aura.

Seeing his leader was straining himself as he held the steps, Marcus ran up then as fast as he could before jumping and hammering the blade thru the Ursa's chest.

As the blade connected with a tree behind behind the Grimm, the Ursa fell back and slowly starting to become ashes.

Taking in a breath of fresh air, Marcus turned to see that not only was Jaune's secret audience present, but so was Ms. Goodwitch, plus those that when to get her.

Before he could make a comment, Ryan fell to a knee and started to cough violently.

Rushing over to his side, Blake and Ms. Goodwitch were the first to get to his side.

Examining him, they found his violent coughing led to blood coming out of his mouth. As he stopped him coughing fit and wiped a small trail of blood of the side of his mouth, Ryan looked at his audience and said,

"Not trying that again."

"That was reckless, Mr. Ketchum. While you and Mr. Baldovino killed that Ursa, it is no excuse for you to try an aura trick that placed so much strain on you." Ms. Goodwitch reprimanded.

"I know Ms. Goodwitch. And I'm sorry but I thought I could do it without such a violent drawback." Ryan responded with a sad almost hurt tone.

 _|And here I thought it would hurt less if she reprimanded me for recklessness. I feels like I let down both Aunt Delilah and Aunt Ilene.|_ Ryan thought to himself.

"Ryan what exactly did you think would happen if you used that trick?" Blake asked in worry, as she noticed that his breathing was still labored and the blood from his mouth was still flowing.

"In all honesty, I got cocky and thought all I would feel was tired. Instead my muscles are burning and I think I damaged something inside me." Ryan said sheepishly.

"Well I think its best we take Mr. Ketchum back to the Beacon infirmary to check for any internal damage as he claims. Mr. Kurokawa, Ms. Nikos if you could go retrieve the sap you and your classmates have collected. Ms. Xiao Long, Mr. Baldovino if you could help carry Mr. Ketchum to the airship so he doesn't hurt himself any more. The rest of you remain on guard we are still surrounded by Grimm that might still attack." Ms. Goodwitch ordered as everyone did as they were told, Blake holding Guardian's Guild in her arms.

* * *

When they got to Beacon, Ryan was taken to the infirmary, where they found one of his blood vessels in his neck was ruptured by the strain. Though his aura was healing the damage, the nurse decided to hold him for the night to make sure the healing process was done correctly.

As he lay in the bed provided to him by the nurse, Ryan looked over at Blake's sleeping form in one of the chairs near his bed.

Despite his argument, the black themed girl decided to stay with him for the night to make sure he didn't go for a morning run against the nurse's orders.

As he slowly started to fall asleep, he thought to himself,

 _|Am I doing the right thing by not telling them?|_

* * *

 **I h** **ope that any one who's been reading since I began enj** **oys my** ** **l** itt** ** **l** e added ****on scenes and better romance** **writing [I h** **ope it's better** **or at least less awkward as bef** **ore]. Any way's like I said earlier I did update the guy Bios so check it out. Review and tell me what you think of it. AuraguardianRyan out**


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